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Snoop in the movies

Staff Reports

Half Baked (1998)Ranking: Three Bones (out of five)Smoke pot? Like Cheech and Chong? Have a copy of Dazed and Confused on DVD? If you answered yes to all these questions, then you’ve already seen Half Baked a half dozen times but still don’t remember much of it. Besides the ever-amusing Dave Chappelle, the best thing about Half Baked is it reminds us that anyone who’s anyone loves weed. How else do you explain Snoop, Willie Nelson, Stephen Wright, Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo and Tommy Chong in a movie this marginal?Baby Boy (2001)Ranking: Two BonesYou can’t step into the same Compton ‘hood twice, no matter how hard you try (and John Singleton tries really, really hard in this one). Just as Baby Boy is no substitute for Boyz ‘N the Hood, Snoop Dogg is no substitute for Ice Cube. Snoop is a decent actor, but then again, playing a doped-out ex-con isn’t much of a stretch. (Note: Does anyone find it bizarre that we live in a world where earnest debates about thespian rappers are common place?)Bones (2001)Ranking: Zero/Four Bones (Depending on your aesthetic values)OK, here’s the plot: Snoop is Jimmy Bones the superfly, pimped out protector of a 1979 neighborhood who is murdered by crack dealers trying to move in on his turf. He ends up buried in the basement of his Dracula-meets-Shaft home. Twenty years later, Bones’ ghost comes back to help his old girlfriend (Pam Grier) prevent the son of his slayer from turning his old house into a hip-hop dance club. Snoop as the star of a blaxploitation slasher flick full of allusions to Italian horror movies ‘nuf said.Starsky & Hutch (2004)Ranking: Two BonesAnyone get the feeling that director Todd Phillips (Old School) plans on casting Vince Vaughn, Snoop and one of the Wilson brothers in every movie he makes? It wouldn’t be a bad plan if he got some better scripts. While Vince Vaughn is good at making the same character funny over and over, Snoop’s got a lot to learn. He looks good in Huggy Bear’s clothes, but he’s got too much ego to play a stooge informant.Soul Plane (2004)Ranking: One BoneUh yeah If you thought the plot to Bones was something, check this out: The virgin flight of NWA airlines goes haywire when the Hunkee family (get it? It’s a play on ‘honky,’ which is a derogatory term for white people) gets on the plane. This is the joke that much of the movie thrives on. Not even Snoop’s pervasive cool can penetrate our generation’s Ishtar.– Jed Gottlieb


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