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09/30/06
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A/K/A Tommy Chong (2005)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:15
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.1/10
Runtime: 80 mins
Genre: Television
Synopsis: a/k/a Tommy Chong is a dynamic portrait of comedy legend Tommy Chong, set against the unfolding political horror story of post 911 America. Filmmaker Josh Gilbert follows the tragic and absurd tale... [More]
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Reviews for A/K/A Tommy Chong
What could have been either a scathing critique of the drug war or an intimate portrait of a stoner facing mortality instead comes off as a fawning infomercial for its subject.
06/15/06
This isn't a great piece of nonfiction filmmaking, but it has its moments.
06/30/06
Top CriticJosh Gilbert's curt documentary about the arrest and conviction of comedian and former bong-maker Tommy Chong reveals the federal sting operation that put Tommy Chong in a state penitentiary for nine months for shipping glass bongs to Pennsylvania.
04/23/09
It is also a portrait of resilience: Chong does his time (nine months) and has the last laugh, emerging as a born-again activist-survivor of the culture wars.
06/14/06
Top CriticA very scary documentary illustrating the carte blanche accorded Big Brother by the Patriot Act
05/24/07
What comes across is Chong's innate elegance and intelligence, two qualities often missing from his trademark comedic work.
03/01/07
A surprisingly clear-eyed, sober account of what it’s liked to be embraced by a culture, while loathed by the Powers That Be.
05/30/06
should have gone for more
06/15/06
This is an important propaganda film. After all, Gilbert has all the facts in hand and presents it halfway decently.
06/17/06
Josh Gilbert's smoothly produced documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong should leave even Nancy Reagan aghast at the unfair trials of comedian Tommy Chong.
06/09/06
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.
04/26/06
The movie's value varies according to how much of the story you already know.
04/29/06
Even those unimpressed with [Cheech and Chong's] genially lowbrow work will be intrigued by the political tenor of this portrait.
06/16/06
How the feds inadver tently 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.
06/14/06
Top CriticJosh Gilbert's film tells the depressing, often ridiculous and generally enraging story of how and why Tommy Chong ended up doing time in a minimum-security prison.
06/14/06
Just when you thought there weren't any more reasons to hate America.
09/14/05
Apparently granted unlimited access to Chong's personal archives, Gilbert digs up some great footage and photos from his early years as well his '70s heyday.
06/15/06
Its dramatic thinness doesn't dilute its simultaneously ridiculous and terrifying portrait of federal prosecution run amok.
06/02/06
A cheeky, somewhat suspect documentary on the battles between an icon of stoner comedy and the Feds, a/k/a Tommy Chong serves up a biased account of Chong's arrest and incarceration for manufacturing drug paraphernalia.
10/13/05
Top CriticLatest News for A/K/A Tommy Chong
August 27, 2008:
DEA drama chronicles case of pot comedian entrapped by the Feds following the passage of the Patriot Act. 
More...
August 25, 2008:
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