On this day in comedy on December 21, 2001 How High was released by Universal Pictures.
Entertainment Weekly ranked this stoner film as third in their top 10. Other mainstream critics dismissed the Dustin Lee Abraham written movie, but what do they know? It won a Stony Award in 2002. Not bad for the first feature film of director, Jesse Dylan. Starring rappers Method Man and Redman, How High was a celebration of smoking weed and hallucinating.
Two academic loafers get a break is the basic story. Their friend dies. So naturally they use his ashes for fertilizer and grow weed that when smoked brings forth visions of the dead friend. However, he’s a spook with a purpose. He gives his buddies all the right answers to their Finals exams which land them into Harvard University. There, they hook up with beautiful girls and frustrate the Dean (Cain) with their free-wheeling falderal and anecdotes. It’s all good until their plant is ripped off and the two are forced to study. When that doesn’t work, they dig up another dead guy, smoke his ashes, but no go. Looks like they’re out of college until a truth serum experiment works and they pass their exam. It’s the kind of thing that happens all the time.
How High had several comedy cameos. Comedians, Mike Epps, Fred Willard, Tracy Morgan and Garrett Morris are featured as well as comedic personalities, Obba Babatunde, Anna Maria Horsford, Jeffrey Jones, Lark Voorhies, Hector Elizondo, Essence Atkins, Spalding Gray, Chuck Liddell and Cypress Hill. Produced by Danny DeVito and 5 others How High was made on a budget of $20 million and grossed $31,283,790 at the box office.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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