Super High Me

Several years ago comedian Doug Benson made a joke about wanting to parody the film Super Size Me, after watching it while high, by smoking pot continuously for 30 days. A filmmaker heard that joke and decided to make it a reality. Upon making the film, there was an added catch to Benson’s plan of 30 days being “Super High,” as he would have to be stone sober for the 30 days leading up to it.

During all of the 60 days, Bensons subjected himself to a series of tests. He took SATs, measured his lung capacity and even took a physic test, just in case the Weed gave him super powers. The results of said tests are more amusing than they are scientific, unlike Morgan Spurlock’s tests in Super Size Me, which were much more dire.

In fact, there is little point to the actual 60 days, and the film’s narrative is only held together with segments and messages about the legalization of medical marijuana. While the official Documentary is on Benson’s adventure (he is also touring and performing throughout) the meat of the film is in seeing these licensed doctors, pharmacists and suffering patients have their legal rights taken away, just as quickly as they are given, by the federal government of the United States. Seems that despite laws being passed on the State level in California, which allow the purchased and selling of medical marijuana, on a federal level it remains an enforceable crime, superseding California law.

There are many interviews throughout, some poignant (see: medical marijuana stories) and the rest are simply amusing (other comedians riffing away). The film is goofy enough throughout to be entertaining, while having enough facts and stories about the effects of Marijauna on real people and society as a whole to be worthwhile. Think of it as a less aggressive episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit.

Video

Widescreen 1.85:1. The picture is pretty disappointing. The colours are off or faded many times and all in all things are not very clear. Other than the opening title graphics, there is hardly anything flashy happening so it is a shame that the lack of quality becomes noticeable and distracts from what is being said by those that are speaking.

Audio

Available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo. The sound is clear throughout and all of the speakers are used for musical portions, but for everything else, you might as well stick with stereo. For a movie that has so many scenes inside of comedy clubs, there is never a single peep out of the rear speakers to give a sense that you are in the audience. Documentary’s might not always require a greater sense of immersion but absolutely no effort was made here.

Subtitles available in Spanish.

Special Features

Most all of these are essentially deleted scenes, and with good cause. I give it an extra half-disc in my rating just for having the good sense to cut these.

A Day at the Bay on Evelyn Mae: Simple. Dave and his producer get high on a boat and talk to some people at a bay. Just as boring as hanging out with stoners in real life.

David Cross Experiment: The presence of Cross does not help this unfunny bit of messing around with a shirt mic. They try to get people to wear it on their nose. Not funny…same reaction as the first feature.

First Drunk Show: Him being drunk adds little. This is the most amusing feature since it is basically the last 3 minutes of his live set. No harm in just hearing some jokes.

Green Cross: A support group of those who use medical marijuana and sorely need it. Not meant to be funny despite crappy joke added by Benson at the end for no good reason.

Watermelon: A failed actress explains very briefly how she makes a living on her pot cookies. Whatever.

Trailer: A teaser.

B-side Thank You: A personal message sent to those who did their own guerrilla screenings of this film. Applicable to very few obviously.

Final Thoughts

Benson makes for a good subject. He had no real inner demons to face during his 60 days, but was very sympathetic to hear those that do. You will find yourself heartbroken seeing and hearing from severely disabled people or cancer sufferers, whose only bright light is marijuana easing their daily pain and anguish. That is where the depth comes from. It becomes all too clear that Benson is not very important to his own film as far as meaning is concerned. There was some potential wasted but hey…they’re stoners, I’m sure they’ll get to it later.