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a/k/a Tommy Chong

EMAILPRINTBlue Chief Entertainment

a/k/a Tommy Chong reviews
60
10.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Josh Gilbert
Steven Hager

Directed by: Josh Gilbert

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 14, 2006

Running Time: 75 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Lou Adler, Paris Chong, Shelby Chong, Tommy Chong, Peter Coyote, Jay Leno, Bill Maher, Cheech Marin, Eric Schlosser, and George Thorogood

Filmmaker Josh Gilbert follows the tragic and absurd journey of legendary counter-culture comedian Tommy Chong who in 2003 was indicted in an internet drug paraphernalia sting and wound up serving nine months in federal prison. (ThinkFilm)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Chong does his time (nine months) and has the last laugh, emerging as a born-again activist-survivor of the culture wars.

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70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

This is a small film, but it moved me and made me angry. Both reactions, in this context, are worthwhile.

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70

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Tells the depressing, often ridiculous and generally enraging story of how and why Mr. Chong, an extremely laid-back and genial camera presence, ended up doing time in the minimum-security Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, Calif.

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63

New York Post Lou Lumenick

How the feds inadvertently resurrected the performing career of stoner comic Tommy Chong by busting him is the ironic subtext of Josh Gilbert's one-sided documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong.

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63

Premiere Ethan Alter

Gilbert films Chong as if he's a political prisoner like Nelson Mandela, when he's really just an older comic going to jail over a bad business decision.

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63

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This isn't a great piece of nonfiction filmmaking, but it has its moments.

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63

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Gilbert blatantly takes Chong's side, so your level of empathy will rise or fall depending on how strongly you connect with his subject's hazy, if enthusiastic, dedication to "the pursuit of righteous happiness."

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60

Film Threat K.J. Doughton

Leave the Visine and wrapping papers at home for A/K/A Tommy Chong, a surprisingly clear-eyed, sober account of what it’s liked to be embraced by a culture, while loathed by the Powers That Be.

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58

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Perhaps it was inevitable that a movie about the ultimate stoner would be undone by fuzzy execution and lack of ambition.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

First-time filmmaker Josh Gilbert, whose skills behind the camera are rudimentary, might be a bit too close to his subject to do disinterested viewers justice; he clearly is a fan and is making no effort to show both sides of the story he reports.

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50

Variety Robert Koehler

While the picture's reporting on government repression of alternative cultural ideas and lifestyles is noteworthy more than anything, it's a blatant promo for Chong's career.

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50

Village Voice Rob Nelson

Following Chong to the clink by way of a few well-timed stand-up gigs, this genial doc sprinkles Reagan and Nixon soundbites over its vintage stash of C&C clips for a suitably fuzzy squint at America from '69 to the buzzkill present.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Martin S. gave it a10:
Film of the year. FIlm of the year. Tommy Chong, he's my homeboy.

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