movies – Gary Bennett Publishing

Dog days at the movies: Top 10 best dog movies of all time

By Gary Bennett

Thus Jan. 9, 2019., photo shows a wall of movie posters celebrating canine stars on display at the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in New York.

This article appears in the August 21, 2025, issue of the Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment magazine.

The dog days of summer are upon us (or perhaps slightly behind us) and what better way to escape the heat and boredom of these last few summer days than to curl up in glorious air conditioning and watch a good dog-themed movie.

But before we consider what to watch, did you ever stop to wonder where the term “dog days” comes from?

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, it turns out that dog days has nothing to do with our four-legged friends but everything to do with astrology! Dog days refers to the hottest time of year between July 3 and Aug. 11, with Aug. 11 just happening to coincide with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. For ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the annual flooding of the Nile in mid-August, so it became the “watch dog” for that event.

Today “dog days” are associated with hot, muggy days when you just can’t do anything but lie around like a dog. Dog days have come to be more associated with August than July. That is because by August, we have just about had it with summer. I know I have.

The term has even made its way into popular culture. Baseball has dog days when teams, most notably those out of contention, struggle to grind out game after game. Popular music has the 2010 top 10 song “Dog Days are Over,” by Florence and the Machine.

There’s also been more than a few movies with “dog days” in the title, including one great one, 1975’s “Dog Day Afternoon” starring Al Pacino and directed by Sidney Lumet. That one told the tale of a long, sweaty, daylong siege suffered by inept bank robber Pacino, his partner and nine frightened hostages. It was based on a true story. Unfortunately, there were no actual dogs in the movie.

But thankfully for us, there are lots of great movies about dogs — so many, in fact, it’s nearly impossible to settle on a list of the top 10. But settle, I did.

I’m partial to movies where dogs don’t die and are the heroes, but I did consider the alternative. One caveat: I didn’t include animated movies in my top 10, which took some admittedly great ones out of the mix like “101 Dalmatians” and “Lady and the Tramp.” But, I’m an adult now and I just can’t settle in with an animated movie unless I’m with my grandsons.

10. “The Shaggy Dog,” 1959

Young lad Wilby stumbles upon an ancient curse and begins turning into a sheepdog, little by little. As a dog, he helps to foil a plot to steal secret government information he overhears.

9. “Turner & Hootch,” 1989

Tom Hanks stars as a by-the-book police officer who inherits his friend’s unruly dog who has a knack for helping to solve cases. In an odd-couple pairing, Hanks reluctantly embraces the sloppy, destructive, but effective dog.

8. “Best in Show,” 2000

The talented Second City cast prepares to take part in the great Mayflower Dog Show in this quirky, dry comedy that features scores of hilarious canines.

7. “A Dog’s Way Home,” 2019

When big-hearted Bella becomes separated from her owner, she embarks on a 400-mile journey to reunite with him. Along the way she finds adventure and helps a host of strangers.

6. “Call of the Wild,” 2020

Harrison Ford stars in this Alaskan adventure as the new owner of Buck, a good-natured dog that was just added to his mail-delivery dog sled team. Buck enjoys the work and the adventurous lifestyle.

5. “Sounder,” 1972

A family of poor Black sharecroppers in the Depression-era South can’t find enough to eat, despite help from their hunting dog, Sounder. The dog eventually runs away, but the family never gives up hope of finding it. I won’t spoil the ending.

4. “A Dog’s Purpose,” 2017

Reincarnated many times over 50-plus years, a devoted dog learns about itself as it helps its owners to laugh and love — one of the best ideas for a dog movie ever.

3. “Benji,” 1974

When the two children that Benji loves are kidnapped, he springs into action to save them and captures the crooks. He even falls in love with a Maltese along the way.

2. “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” 1993

Before the family leaves on vacation, they drop off their pets, including Chance, a wet-behind-the-ears American bulldog, at a friend’s ranch. Afraid they’ve been left forever, they start off on a harrowing journey to find their family. This movie features great voice work by Micheal J. Fox.

1. “Old Yeller,” 1957

A family in Texas tries to run off a runaway dog they call Old Yeller because he caused damage in their fields. Eventually they warm to him when he protects the family from a bear attack. As the dog and family grow closer, an outbreak of rabies threatens the bond.

Gary Bennett is a longtime Frederick resident who spends his time hiking, biking, volunteering and providing childcare for grandchildren. He is married and retired from his career as a nonprofit marketing executive.

‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat!’ Jaws celebrates 50 years

By Gary Bennett

This article appears in the June 5, 2025 edition of the Frederick News-Post’s entertainment insert “72 Hours.”

Has there ever been a more famous quote from a movie? A few may come to mind, but I’ll wager none serve to sum up the shocking, new-found peril faced by the protagonists like this famous one in the classic 1975 movie “Jaws.”

The well-known utterance from Chief Brody (played by Roy Scheider) came right after seeing for the first time the size and scale of the danger they faced as it glided past their small boat. It was said with a kind of matter-of-fact resignation and wide-eyed shock that seems to define the entire movie.

“Jaws” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, having been released on June 20, 1975. Numerous festivities and events are planned. It will be re-released in theaters soon and is receiving a new home video release on June 17 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, with an additional two hours of bonus footage. “Jaws” currently streams on Peacock.

“Jaws” was highly advertised and anticipated in 1975. In those days, online pre-sales were not a thing, of course, and long lines dominated every theater in which it played. It was not unusual for theaters to sell out repeatedly for weeks, disappointing many theatergoers (including myself) more than once. “Jaws” became one of the first giant summer blockbuster movies.

The director of the film was a young, largely unknown auteur named Steven Spielberg. The threat of a good scare drew theatergoers in, but the masterful work of Spielberg and three first-rate actors kept us coming back for more. The movie propelled Spielberg to unprecedented heights as a director, and the three stars, especially a young Richard Dreyfuss, to bigger and better roles and movie stardom.

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” — Chief Brody played by Roy Scheider

To say that “Jaws” had an outsized effect on popular culture in 1975 may be the understatement of all time. People were so afraid of going into the water that long stretches of beach up and down both coasts, but especially in New England where the movie was set, were largely deserted. I saw this firsthand in Ocean City in 1975 and will never forget the eerie scene. Inexplicably, people were even queasy about swimming in lakes, rivers and pools, lest they be surprised by a wayward great white.

There are many things that made “Jaws” a brilliant movie, much more than the promised maritime mayhem. Foremost was the work of Spielberg. He insisted on filming “Jaws” in the ocean rather than a tank. The rough seas made for shaky cameras and a realism that belied the subject matter. Secondly, and much like Alfred Hitchcock before him, much of the terror is never seen but implied. It is left up to the audience’s wild imagination to amp up the terror.

Take, for instance, the opening scene. A tipsy female partygoer decides to go skinny dipping in the ocean late at night. First you hear the ominous theme music — “duh dum, duh dum, duh dum” — but then all you see is the young lady struggling in the water in the dark and being pulled under repeatedly. She can’t see the beast as it attacks her, dragging her along the surface of the water until he finally decides to eat her alive under the water and out of sight. The ocean turns red.

This creative decision by Spielberg puts the viewers in the shoes of the doomed partygoer. Theaters were largely quiet during this scene — not even gasps from the shocked audience who were just settling into their seats. Spielberg later admitted that problems with the mechanical shark (nicknamed Bruce) forced him to keep it largely unseen until the end of the movie when audiences were already hooked.

Another classic scene is the death of a little boy playing innocently in a nearby lagoon, sent there because of shark sightings in the ocean. There’s a lot happening along the crowded beach. The film keeps cutting back and forth to the boy playing in the lagoon, a dog playing fetch, and Chief Brody worriedly watching the chaos in the ocean. When the shark’s famous melody kicks in, we know the boy and dog are in trouble. First the dog disappears and then the boy struggles for a short time and is pulled under with a shriek. In an instant, it is over.

Perhaps even better than Spielberg’s direction is the work of the two veteran actors, Robert Shaw as Captain Quint and Roy Scheider as Chief of Police Brody, and Dreyfuss as oceanologist Matt Hooper.

Doomed skinny-dipping partygoer just minutes into the movie.

The case can be made that “Jaws” is a buddy movie. It doesn’t start off that way as Quint and Hooper are constantly at each other’s throats, while Chief Brody tries heroically to keep them focused. Brody hires the salty, grizzled Quint to catch the shark while Hooper comes along at Brody’s behest, packed with all manner of hi-tech, shark-catching gizmos that Quint scoffs at. “I’ll bring you as ballast,” Quint sneers to the young Hooper.

After a few days of sighting the beast, spearing it with barrels and following it, the shark turns the tables and begins to hunt them, nearly pulling the doomed vessel apart. Then, late at night, as the three settle in for a short rest with a few well-deserved drinks, Quint and Hooper bond over injuries they’ve sustained in pursuit of their jobs.

Then comes THE MONOLOGUE. It is set right before the three have their final showdown with the shark. Even in a crowded theater, you could hear a pin drop as Quint tugs on his cap and speaks.

This long, sad remembrance of Quint’s doomed shipmates on the USS Indianapolis after they delivered the atom bomb in World War II cements Quint as one of the iconic movie characters of all time. As Brody and Hooper sit silently hanging on every word, Quint recalls the miserable tale of shipmates being eaten one by one by a host of sharks as the men bobbed helplessly in the Pacific Ocean waiting for rescue after their torpedoed ship goes down.

No matter how many times I see it, the power and delivery by Shaw is captivating. I challenge anyone reading this to find a clip of the monologue, watch it start to finish, and not be mesmerized. It is a stunning performance. Shaw should have won an Oscar for this monologue alone, but alas, he was not even nominated. The theory is that the three lead actors canceled each other out in the Oscar voting.

Best roadtrip movies of all time

By Gary Bennett

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, 1969.

This article appears in the April 17, 2025, edition of Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment insert.

Art certainly does imitate life, especially when it comes to roadtrips. There are so many great roadtrip movies because Americans really love a good roadtrip. It seems to be baked into us.

There’s something magical about hitting the open road with endless possibilities in front of you and the mundane, workaday world behind, at least for a little while. Seeing new places, meeting new people, and enjoying new adventures are the promises of the all-American roadtrip.

The joys and tribulations of roadtrips are well depicted on the silver screen. Folks of the Greatest Generation remember the start of it all with the many “Road to” movies of the ’40s and ‘50s, starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. This series of zany musical comedies took the audience to exotic places like Singapore, Zanzibar and Morocco. We were hooked.

Then, in 1957, Jack Kerouac published his seminal novel “On the Road,” that glorified the carefree and adventurous travels of two friends deeply engrained in the counterculture movement. It captured the imagination of a new generation of travelers.

Shortly after that, in the ‘60s, construction began in earnest on the Eisenhower Interstate System that made it possible to travel safely and comfortably for long distances by car, even coast to coast if one wanted. Ever since, Americans have been off and running, planning their very own roadtrip adventures with friends or family.

With spring comes the unmistakable itch for adventure, but before you start planning your own getaway, settle in with a great roadtrip movie or two to amp up your excitement — or maybe temper your expectations a little bit, too.

10. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)

Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman

This true, cult-classic story starts out with the lovable rogues trying to steal their way out of the Great Depression, town by town, cross-country, but ends in the bloodiest shootout the movies had ever seen.

“When we started out … I thought we were really going somewhere. But this is it. We’re just going.”

9. THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979)

Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear

The delightful, smart-alecky animated gang make their way from Florida to California so Kermit can begin his Hollywood career.

Kermit: “Where did you learn to drive?”

Fozzie: “I took a correspondence course.”

The gang’s all here in The Muppet Movie, 1979.

8. SIDEWAYS (2004)

Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church

A winding trip around California’s wine country allows two friends to explore their love lives and bond before one is to marry.

At a gas station: “I’ll take a Barely Legal, please. Uh, no, the new one.”

7. HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE (2004)

John Cho, Kal Penn

Two friends get stoned and set off in search of a highly prized White Castle restaurant deep into the New Jersey backroads trying to avoid trouble along the way.

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to get on the highway from here, would you?”

“Dude, I don’t even know where the f— I am right now.”

6. ROAD TRIP (2000)

Seann William Scott, Breckin Meyer

A guy mistakenly videotapes his risqué affair and then somehow mails it to his girlfriend 2,000 miles away. They set out in his car to get the video before she does.

Looking at a broken bridge: “Hey, it’s 10 feet. Bob Hope could jump this in his golf cart. See? Watch. I can spit across it.”

5. GREEN BOOK (2018)

Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali

A white man and Black man develop an unexpected friendship as they drive around the segregated South during the Black man’s piano concert tour.

“I ain’t worried about nothin’ … in fact, when you see me worried, you’ll know.”

4. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)

Steve Martin, John Candy

This feel-good comedy classic throws together two lovable but bickering strangers trying to get home for Thanksgiving. Everything that can go wrong does.

State trooper: “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?”

Del Griffith (John Candy): “Funny enough, I was just talking to my friend about that. Our speedometer melted [from a small fire], and as a result it’s very hard to see with any degree of accuracy exactly how fast we were going.”

3. THELMA & LOUISE (1991)

Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis

This quintessential girl-buddy movie runs roughshod over men and other n’er-do-wells until the polar-opposite ladies meet their unexpected demise at the end.

“Look, you shoot off a guy’s head with his pants down. Believe me, Texas is not the place you wanna get caught.”

Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983.

2. NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION (1983)

Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo

Of the many vacation movies, we’ll stick with the original because it is the most endearing. A caring but buffoonish dad simply wants to take his family on a memorable vacation, but the universe conspires against him.

Considering his newly deceased aunt: “You want me to strap her to the hood? She’ll be fine. It’s not as if it’s going to rain or something.”

1. EASY RIDER (1969)

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson

A truly great movie, “Easy Rider” was emblematic of ‘60s counterculture. Fonda and Hopper tool around on their choppers while smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles.

“You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.”

Honorable Mentions: Almost Famous (2000), Bucket List (2007), Deliverance (1072), Duel (1971), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Midnight Run (1988), Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Nomadland (2020), Paper Moon (1973), Rain Man (1988), Rat Race (2001), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Straight Story (1999), Wild (2014) and Zombieland (2009).

The Drive-in life: Where to go for movies, popcorn …. and a dash of nostalgia

By Gary Bennett

Bengie’s Drive-In Theater in Middle River, just east of Baltimore.

This article appears in the July 25, 2024 edition of the Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment magazine.

There’s something so nostalgically American about drive-in theaters.

Where else can you enjoy the great outdoors from the comfort of your own car, balance the fun of socializing with the expectation of privacy, take the kids and go in your pajamas (if you want), and enjoy a good movie and the smell of popcorn and fries wafting through the air, too?

Then, too, there’s something magical about dusk in the summer. It is the perfect confluence of night and day and transition from hot to warm and work to play.

Who wants to come inside on a beautiful summer evening at dusk when the heat of the day is finally over? If you need a reason to stay outside at night, drive-in theaters are it!

At the drive-in at dusk, folks may be outside their cars, talking with friends or neighbors (or making new friends), getting food maybe playing with kids. Anticipation and wonderful aromas are in the air. Music is playing over loud speakers. A huge screen is standing sentinel over all the proceedings. A feeling of community and shared experience is evident.

Of course, we all know drive-in theaters have seen better days. According to the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association, only about 300 drive-in theaters still exist in the U.S. In their heyday in the late ‘50s, over 4,000 populated America, mostly in rural areas where land is cheaper.

The reasons for their decline are many, but chief among them is the sheer cost of land, which has skyrocketed in the U.S. It takes about 15 acres of land to park enough cars for economies of scale to kick in at a drive-in theater. Drive-in owners must own or lease all that land to comfortably park their patrons. Indoor multiplex owners don’t have to worry about their parking situation.

There is no doubt the land is typically more valuable than the theater business itself, making it ripe for selling off for housing, retail strips or office complexes. As car culture began to wane in the late ‘70s and ‘80s and as the middle-class decamped for a more suburban lifestyle of box stores and multiplexes, drive-in theaters became nearly extinct.

Drive-ins, too, tend to be owned by individuals as small businesses. When they want to retire, owners often find it difficult to find a buyer who wishes to continue in the theater business. It doesn’t help that indoor multiplexes are dominated by a few large, well-funded companies. Finally, movie watching tastes have changed, too, to more in-home viewing.

By the ‘90s when a nostalgia craze kicked in, new drive-in theaters began to be built. Today, the industry has stabilized and fewer are closing. Nevertheless, drive-ins must follow a difficult business model.

Drive-in theaters are like gas stations but without the support of a big parent company. Most of the price consumers pay for the main product (gas or a movie) goes back to the oil company — or movie studio. Owners are left to make most of their money through extras, like food. That is why outside food is either prohibited or severely limited at drive-in theaters today. “Car-load” prices are typically a thing of the past, too.

One would think that Southern states, with their warmer weather, would dominate the drive-in theater business since they can show movies year-round without the need for car owners to run their engines for heat. But that would be wrong. Large states with mostly pleasant year-round weather like California and Texas have only 13 drive-in theaters each. Florida only has four. It is New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio that have the most, with 28, 27 and 23 respectively.

Most experts credit this anomaly to cultural differences that encourage the handing down of businesses from generation to generation in “the rust belt.” The northern drive-in theater owners have also been creative in finding other uses for their theaters in the “off season,” such as holding car rallies, auctions or flea markets. Or, they run their movies year-round and promote the cozy feeling of drive-ins in the winter.

In Maryland, we only have one drive-in theater left to call our own: Bengie’s in Middle River, just east of Baltimore. It takes a little over an hour to get there. They bill themselves as having the largest outdoor screen in the U.S. They show first-run movies. Ticket prices are per-person and are similar to ticket prices at our local multiplexes. Outside food is limited.

Frederick’s last drive-in theater, The Family Drive-in (later named the Frederick Drive-in) on Jefferson Pike between Frederick and Jefferson, closed in 1982. Before that, we had the Braddock Drive-in, which was owned by the same person.

Frederick’s closest drive-in theater now is in Pennsylvania. Haar’s Drive-in Theater on Route 15 in Dillsburg (just north of Gettysburg) is a pleasant one-hour car ride from Frederick. They show first-run movies. Ticket prices are $10 per person with children under 5 admitted free. Outside food is prohibited.

In Virginia, the Family Drive-In Theater in Stephens City is about an hour and 15 minutes away. It is the closest of Virginia’s six drive-ins. Stephens City is just south of Winchester. They show first-run movies. Adult tickets are $12 and tickets for children ages 3 to 12 are $7.

COMING OF AGE AT THE DRIVE-IN

I didn’t know it at the time, but I had the good fortune to grow up right beside a drive-in theater in extremely rural Western Maryland. Later, it became my first employer. Unfortunately, the screen angled away from our house and toward the house on the other side of the drive-in.

Growing up, I knew the Hi-Rock Drive-in Theater near McCoole more as a daytime playground than a movie theater. Settling into bed at night, it was somehow soothing to hear the bustle of humanity as evidenced by the car horns honking for the next movie to start after intermission. Pleasant food aromas wafted into my bedroom window, too.

It was our closest “restaurant” — and one within easy walking distance. I vividly remember my dad sending me over to get tasty hot dogs just about every Saturday evening as we got ready to watch “Gunsmoke.” It was one of those strange family traditions that no one knew how began, but one we could never abandon. The kindly box office attendant always let me pass by with a promise that I would be right back with my family’s food order. Naturally, I got to sneak many peeks at the movies playing as I wandered over to the snack bar.

As I grew into my teen years, the drive-in became my place of employment. Good thing, too, because there wasn’t much else available in rural Allegany County, especially for teens. The county had three drive-ins up until about 1980: the Potomac in LaVale, the Super 51 just outside of Cumberland on Route 51, and “my drive-in,” as I like to call it, the Hi-Rock in McCoole, just over the state line from Keyser, West Virginia.

At the Hi-Rock, I sold tickets, worked in the concession stand and was even a “ramp boy,” the person who assisted any cars who had any problems, re-attached speakers that nearly left with patrons and chased down scofflaws who tried to enter the drive-in for free through the exit. I even picked up trash left on the ground after the movie.

I have many wonderful and funny drive-in stories that involve streaking; food fights; beer runs; naughty, cryptic messages broadcast over the PA system; cars with steamed-up windows that wouldn’t leave; and the requisite piling out of humanity from trunks.

It was clear, too, that my friends thought I had the very best high school job of anyone. I would have to agree. I even parlayed the part-time job into a full-time job managing an indoor movie theater during college.

A few drive-in movie theaters remain in the area and continue to bring a nostalgic feeling to movie-goers.

ENJOY A (RELATIVELY) NEARBY DRIVE-IN THEATER

Bengie’s Drive-In Theater
3417 Eastern Blvd., Middle River
Located in a suburb of Baltimore, Bengie’s has the largest movie screen remaining in the U.S.
410-687-5627
bengies.com
Opened: 1956

Family Drive-In Theatre
5890 Valley Pike, Stephens City, Va.
This family-owned business is one of the state’s few remaining drive-in theaters.
540-665-6982
thefamilydi.com
Opened: 1956

Haar’s Drive-In Theater
185 Logan Road, Dillsburg, Pa.
Haar’s has been in continuous operation for more than 70 years. It hosts auctions and concerts, too.
717-432-8246
haars.com
Opened: 1952

Cumberland Drive-In Theatre
3290 Ritner Hwy., Newville, Pa.
Located about an hour and a half from Frederick, it has been operated by the same family for more than 60 years.
717-776-5212
Opened: 1952

Starlight Cinema
5875 Trinity Pkwy, Centreville, Va.
This modern facility is about an hour and a half from Frederick and features family-friendly films, food and activities for kids.
703-324-8700
Opened: 2012

The best stoner movies of all time

By Gary Bennett

The first major studio stoner movie in 1978 featured comedy duo, Cheech & Chong

This article appears in Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment insert, June 29, 2023.

Coming of age in the ’70s, I am embarrassed to admit that the golden age of stoner movies was the ‘90s and early ‘00s. During this modern stone(d) age, they were at their haziest, giggliest, munchiest best.

I guess it figures. We boomers are seen as reliably uptight, spotlight-seeking, job-hogging leeches living high on the government dole. Fair enough. Maybe we thought we were cool back then, but obviously not cool enough to have really good stoner movies.

But we did have Cheech and Chong, the amiable Marx Brothers of weed. They were super-cool, barely able to function, and despite not caring about anything except the next buzz, things always seemed to turn out right for them. Yet, their seminal stoner movie, Up in Smoke (1978) appears only at number eight on my top ten list, not able to supplant any of the top stoner flicks of the ‘90s and ‘00s.

On the other hand, Gen X and Millennials, those turn of the century generations, are universally derided as trophy hoarding, video game playing, chicken nugget eating, mom’s basement living, job hopping, spoiled brats. So, is it any wonder that many of the most popular movies of the day would feature pot-smoking slackers? Of course not!

Of my top ten stoner flicks, only Up in Smoke, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and the granddaddy of them all, Reefer Madness (1936!) were released outside of this pineapple-y “golden” age of stoned-ness.

Even though pot smoking goes back as far as recoded history, it did not become a movement among youth in the U.S. until the jazz era of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Back then, marijuana was considered a dangerous substance, spurring law enforcement officials to push for its ban. Hence, the cautionary documentary-style movie Reefer Madness of 1936.

The counterculture hippies of the ‘60s embraced weed as never before, but it wasn’t until the ‘70s and Up in Smoke that marijuana begin to elbow its way into popular consciousness and Hollywood movies.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some movies like The Wizard of Oz that have nothing to do with marijuana (unless you think Dorothy was tripping instead of suffering from a bump on her head) but are just weird enough to be very entertaining when stoned. Just ask my late 1970s self.

But these movies – my top ten stoner flicks of all time – feature cooler than cool, don’t-give-a-damn characters. Reefer is at its chain smoking finest. It either serves as a central plot device for characters who win in spite of themselves or as an amusing distraction such as with Sean Penn’s classic character Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Don’t agree with my list? Yeah man, well, it’s heavy, but, you know, it is what it is.

10. HALF-BAKED (1998)
Dave Chapelle
This Chapelle-written vehicle captures the whacky antics of stoned friends trying to help another stoned friend who got arrested for killing a police horse by feeding it junk food.
Stoniest line: “Hey, I know this isn’t your responsibility, but mop up the rest of this sh#t and I’ll be right back.”

9. REEFER MADNESS (1936)
Dave O’Brien, Dorothy Short, Lillian Miles
Now days, this cautionary tale of the effects of drug use on America’s youth is hilarious for its earnestness. But not then. Plot focuses on innocent teens being drawn into a “reefer house” and committing a terrible crime while high.
Stoniest line: “This, I understand, can be attributed to marijuana. It causes errors in time and space.”

8. UP IN SMOKE (1978)
Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong
This first studio film aimed at tokers was a runaway hit. Comedy duo Cheech and Chong played lovable stoners who take to the road for wild misadventures including crossing the border in a van made entirely of reefer.
Stoniest line: “Man, if you had a second brain, man, it would die of loneliness.”

7. FRIDAY (1995)
Ice Cube, Chis Tucker
It’s the end of the week and Ice and Chris pass the time on the porch smoking up a heavy haze, philosophizing, avoiding Big Worm and watching the world go by.
Stoniest line: “How in the hell did you get fired on your day off?”

6. HOW HIGH (2001)
Method Man, Redman
The two rap superstars bond after discovering a new crop of weed that makes them geniuses. They go to Harvard but must live by their wits when their stash runs out.
Stoniest line: “How did I fail Women’s Studies? I love bitches!”

5. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982)
Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn, Phoebe Cates
This one’s a bit of a stretch because it’s mostly a weed-less tale of teenage life in the California ‘burbs, but Sean Penn’s classic performance of perpetually stoned surfer dude, Jeff Spicoli, makes it more than worth watching as a stoner flick.
Stoniest line: ““All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz and I’m fine,”

4. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008)
James Franco, Seth Rogan
Two buddies get high on a rare type of grass – “pineapple express”, witness a murder and spend the rest of the movie trying to (hilariously) evade the bad guys.
Stoniest line: “It’s, like, the rarest. It’s almost a shame to smoke it. It’s like killing a unicorn. With, like, a bomb.”

3. HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE (2004)
John Cho, Kal Penn
The two pals go on a totally baked quest for the perfect little burger. Along the way they ride a cheetah and meet up with a surprisingly crude Neil Patrick Harris.
Stoniest line: “It’s a sausage fest in here, bro. Let’s get us some poontang, and then we’ll go to White Castle. . . . The ‘Doogie’ line always works on strippers!”

2. THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi
This comic masterpiece features an iconic performance by Jeff Bridges as the chill, bathrobe-wearing, “Dude.” When he’s not bowling, a soiled carpet throws him into seedy L.A. where he fits in well.
Stoniest line: “I bowl. I drive around. [I have] the occasional acid flashback.”

1. DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)
Jason London, Mathew McConaughey
This wonderful flick explores the last day of school in 1976 for a group of aimless Texas teens. Marijuana use is rife and plays a central role when the star quarterback bristles at the coach’s “no drugs” pledge.
Stoniest line: “Behind every good man is a woman and that woman is Martha Washington, man, and every day George would come home and she’d have a big, fat bowl waiting for him.”

Honorable Mentions:
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (2001), Clueless (1995), Easy Rider (1969), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Superbad (2007), Super Troopers (2001), Ted (2012), This is the End (2013).