Half-Baked

A dispiriting, cretinous and contemptible bummer. Alleged comedians Dave Chappelle, Harland Williams and Saturday Night Live's Jim Breuer star as three blissfully stoned-out potheads who must raise bail when one of them is jailed for accidentally killing a diabetic police horse with munchies. Cheech and Chong pretty much cornered the market on doper humor...and that was nearly three decades ago. This rates a half-star for one joke (the lads dub their Titanic-sized water pipe Billy Bong Thornton) and for a parade of fleeting cameos that put the "stars" to shame. Among them: Jon Stewart is the Enhancement Smoker ("Did you ever see Scent of a Woman...on weed?"), Janeanne Garafalo is the I'm-Only-Creative-When-I-Smoke Smoker and Stephen Wright is the self-explanatory Guy-on-the-Couch. Half-baked is generous; this is quarter-baked, at best. (K. Lee Benson)[DVD Review--Universal, 83 min., R, $19.98--Making its second appearance on DVD Half-Baked: Fully Baked Edition features non-smoker and pro-smoker versions of the menu, audio commentary by director Tamra Davis, 10 minutes of deleted scenes, a six-minute alternate ending, the facetious five-minute segment “Five Minutes with the Guy on the Couch” (who snores, coughs, and scratches, but not much else), five brief animated segments of “Different Types of Smokers,” the six-minute featurette “Bakin' in Bammy County, Vol. 3: Granny's Guide to Bakin'” (with recipes including “Chicken Pot Pie” and “Blueberry Bud Brownies”), and text production notes. Bottom line: Half-Baked is still half-baked, regardless of the extras; however, this is being given a high profile release due to the popularity of Dave Chappelle's Comedy Central show.]