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Things are Tough All Over
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
I'll admit that I've never really been that much of a fan of the "Cheech and Chong" films. They throw out a few good jokes, but I've always felt that "Half Baked", from a few years ago, did the whole stoner humor genre better. And, with all of the films that the duo ended up doing, the law of diminishing returns eventually sets in with some being funnier than others. "Things Are Tough All Over" is unfortunately one of the "others", a movie that, while I will give it credit for thinking up another plot for the stoner duo to follow through on, forgets about the jokes.
The duo play themselves as losers who go from job to job (they destroy a car at a car wash early on in the picture and get fired, try being musicians and fail at that), but they're eventually hired by Prince Habib and his associate Slyman(Cheech and Chong as well) to drive a car to Vegas, but they don't know that there's actually 5 million hidden in the car's upholstery.
I was suprised to see that the two actually lessened the pot humor quite a bit for this outing - there's only a few pot jokes, it seemed, although maybe this was due to the fact that some of the film was shot in Chicago during the Winter, where it's too cold to even light a match, but who knows. Still, a sober Cheech and Chong just doesn't seem to be quite as funny. Their dual-roles are also a nice little effort to get a few more jokes from the story, but somehow this doesn't generate much in the way of laughs, either.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Things Are Tough All Over" is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (a pan&scan edition is also available in the menu). The widescreen image is a decent presentation from Tristar - like their other C & C release "Nice Dreams", it's certainly watchable, but there are flaws occasionally - mainly due to age. Sharpness and detail are fine, for the most part. Some scenes throughout the movie seemed slightly on the softer side, but not hugely so.
Print flaws were really the only problem that caused much distraction. Light instances of grit, speckles and a mark or two pop up during the picture. These didn't add up to any sort of major wear, but I found the amount noticable nonetheless. I didn't see any instances of pixelation or edge enhancement, though.
Colors, like "Nice Dreams", were simply fair. Colors looked slightly unstable in a couple of scenes, but otherwise appeared natural, if unremarkable. This is a watchable presentation, but it does suffer from a few problems. Subtitles are offered in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese & Thai.
SOUND: "Things Are Tough All Over" is presented in mono and and, like "Nice Dreams", offers a fairly good audio experience with the limited means of mono audio. The film's few songs sound fairly full, but unexceptional. Dialogue also sounded clear and natural, except for a few scenes where it sounded slightly thin. Again, nothing great, but there were no problems with it.
MENUS:: Although the menus aren't animated, the main menu at least has a cool Vegas background that has the selections built into different areas of the background.
EXTRAS:: Talent files and bonus trailers for "Homegrown" and "So I Married An Axe Murderer".
Final Thoughts: "Things Are Tough All Over" is certainly a film for C & C fans only - I've laughed occasionally at some of their other films, but this one didn't get much of a chuckle from me. Audio/video quality, much like "Nice Dreams", is pretty unremarkable - also like that previous C & C DVD, there's really nothing much in the way of extras here, either.
I'll admit that I've never really been that much of a fan of the "Cheech and Chong" films. They throw out a few good jokes, but I've always felt that "Half Baked", from a few years ago, did the whole stoner humor genre better. And, with all of the films that the duo ended up doing, the law of diminishing returns eventually sets in with some being funnier than others. "Things Are Tough All Over" is unfortunately one of the "others", a movie that, while I will give it credit for thinking up another plot for the stoner duo to follow through on, forgets about the jokes.
The duo play themselves as losers who go from job to job (they destroy a car at a car wash early on in the picture and get fired, try being musicians and fail at that), but they're eventually hired by Prince Habib and his associate Slyman(Cheech and Chong as well) to drive a car to Vegas, but they don't know that there's actually 5 million hidden in the car's upholstery.
I was suprised to see that the two actually lessened the pot humor quite a bit for this outing - there's only a few pot jokes, it seemed, although maybe this was due to the fact that some of the film was shot in Chicago during the Winter, where it's too cold to even light a match, but who knows. Still, a sober Cheech and Chong just doesn't seem to be quite as funny. Their dual-roles are also a nice little effort to get a few more jokes from the story, but somehow this doesn't generate much in the way of laughs, either.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Things Are Tough All Over" is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (a pan&scan edition is also available in the menu). The widescreen image is a decent presentation from Tristar - like their other C & C release "Nice Dreams", it's certainly watchable, but there are flaws occasionally - mainly due to age. Sharpness and detail are fine, for the most part. Some scenes throughout the movie seemed slightly on the softer side, but not hugely so.
Print flaws were really the only problem that caused much distraction. Light instances of grit, speckles and a mark or two pop up during the picture. These didn't add up to any sort of major wear, but I found the amount noticable nonetheless. I didn't see any instances of pixelation or edge enhancement, though.
Colors, like "Nice Dreams", were simply fair. Colors looked slightly unstable in a couple of scenes, but otherwise appeared natural, if unremarkable. This is a watchable presentation, but it does suffer from a few problems. Subtitles are offered in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese & Thai.
SOUND: "Things Are Tough All Over" is presented in mono and and, like "Nice Dreams", offers a fairly good audio experience with the limited means of mono audio. The film's few songs sound fairly full, but unexceptional. Dialogue also sounded clear and natural, except for a few scenes where it sounded slightly thin. Again, nothing great, but there were no problems with it.
MENUS:: Although the menus aren't animated, the main menu at least has a cool Vegas background that has the selections built into different areas of the background.
EXTRAS:: Talent files and bonus trailers for "Homegrown" and "So I Married An Axe Murderer".
Final Thoughts: "Things Are Tough All Over" is certainly a film for C & C fans only - I've laughed occasionally at some of their other films, but this one didn't get much of a chuckle from me. Audio/video quality, much like "Nice Dreams", is pretty unremarkable - also like that previous C & C DVD, there's really nothing much in the way of extras here, either.
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