Rolling Kansas (2003) User Reviews

Bottom line: Funny Movie.

[adelman00 · 7/10 · 28 February 2003]

Ok. So i saw this movie yesterday at the USCAF 2003 and was graced with the presence of Haden Church for the screening. I always have a hard time watching a movie with the filmmakers (I know, poor me!) because I feel like I have to laugh and that my perception of the movie is changed) Yet the more I think about this movie the more I like it. It is like Road Trip minus the trite love story that always takes away from the film. Though it (sort of) has that element, it really isn't a big part of the movie. I already had a sweet spot for it when I saw Charlie Finn as one of the main characters (the Dimpus Burger guy from Super Troopers) who, I think, is f**king hilarious, though he will probably turn out to only play these kind of parts, the dim-witted yet charming stoner. ANYWAYS, the movie is funny. The characters are vibrant and funny, each carrying their weight of the movie equally well. Gratuitous nudity is always a plus, especially when the chick is smoking hot, and she is. Rip Torn has a sweet bit part as an old stoner, to which i was laughing so hard because, well... it is Rip Torn. It was also good to see the reunion of Thomas Haden Church and Kevin Pollack as comical cops

(the cops from 3000 Miles To Graceland.. awful movie) who are so good together I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with a movie where they were the main characters. It could definitely work and I for one would go see it. Well I'll quit rattling on and just say that if this movie hits theaters nationwide, definitely check it out.

if you like this movie...

[expostdelirium · 6/10 · 30 May 2005]

...you might like to read "cows are freaky when they look at you". it is a compilation of anecdotes and history of Lawrence, ks, in the sixties and seventies, focusing on the "kaw valley hemp pickers" most/all of the stories are told in the first person and are great. the movie reminds me of an account in the book,but for some reason, i can't locate my copy to figure out which one. the stories are great, and some of the "locals" in the book are still around 30, 40 years after the events recounted in the book. some of my co-workers have attested to the truth in many of the accounts. the book should hold you over between viewings of this hilarious, random, movie.

A Simple Yet Humorous Movie

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 3 November 2006]

The children of hippies find a map to the "magic forest of marijuana" and set out to find it before they must return for finals.

The plot of this movie is very simple (see above) and strikes me as the sort of thing MTV films would produce ("Porn and Chicken" or "Jailbait"?) but I guess it wasn't them. But the simple plot also doesn't matter, because the characters are incredibly funny.

One character in particular, Kevin, is amusing as he tries to find out if he's gay or not after a run-in with an old man and some "cutting implements". He's not sure if he's gay, but he knows he "likes dudes".

And Rip Torn, who is becoming known among the younger crowd for his characters after "Dodgeball", is great in this as a hitch-hiking gardener.

This review is poor, but seriously... good film. Thomas Haden Church is a great actor ("Sideways") and a respectable director.

Rolling Kansas a character driven stoner movie, no way!

[Pidgey1 · 19 October 2004]

Rolling Kansas has the unique opportunity of actually being a good character driven film hidden beneath the paper mache surface of a stoner movie. A gaggle of young men, a car, a cooler of beer on a search of mythical medical marijuana oasis in Kansas. Need I say more, Yes! These guys are interesting, and they are funny dare I say that they have depth, but not in the traditional sense, more like we don't dumb ourselves down to be funny, depth. Yes, it is a silly movie with a silly premise, three brothers attempt to make a financial killing from harvesting pot that their parents found in Kansas when the boys were wee lads. They find a map and get the wheels, hyjinx ensu. Nothing new there, it's just that the pace and the dialog are actually engaging. Roll on kansas, roll on!

Ehhh, OK

[cory-spicer · 6/10 · 29 July 2009]

I almost gave up on this movie after 15 or 20 minutes. The characters are weird, the plot is weak, and the production value isn't all that impressive. However, the movie does start to pick up, and there are some genuinely funny parts. They kept the length reasonable, making this movie worth watching once.

I will say that I was expecting some more stoner comedy. For some reason -- maybe because they didn't want to be labeled a "stoner comedy" -- they shy away from any actual on-screen smoking (even though they already had an R rating). The plot revolves around trying to find a crop of weed, but most of the humor has nothing to do with the sweet herb. It's mostly just a bunch of weird dudes who are down on their luck looking to get paid.

All in all, I would call it decent. Not hilarious, but not unwatchable either.

funny, great soundtrack, good social commentary

[semysig · 7/10 · 29 March 2006]

Great flick, serendipitous late-night find on Comedy Central! Glad I found this site too! I love the quotes section. I missed some of em while watching because they come so fast in parts.

I would have liked to see them save a T-shirt behind the feds backs at the end though, or somehow keep the legend alive.

Also, pi*ses me off that the guy who's wife leaves him steals (probably legally) everything he owns, and he's not even pis*ed! Worse, he still wants her back! It's like as to say this kind of thing is OK! Maybe it's supposed to be funny, like to women or something. Maybe I would laugh to and think "that's right be-ache, don't do what I want and I'll take everything you own and get away with it /snicker/!"

I do like how they have the line with Olman where he says something like (I'm going to get this a bit off) "We were trying to do something good back then, and then the govt. destroyed all that." and how it's good to see something of it still survive. Get's the point across about how screwed up the war on drugs is without being pushy.

Good "Bad" Movie

[sailorsmith · 6/10 · 17 May 2004]

I saw this one last night on Comedy Central. I had never heard of Rolling Kansas, so I had no expectations going into it. This is not a good movie, by any means. Poorly written and directed with a cast of so-so actors, at first I didn't know if I'd be able to watch the whole thing. However, time flew by and before I knew it I had watched the whole thing. It helps if you high.

There are a few good laughs. The actors are likable, my favorite being the gay friend. Rip Torn is a hoot, although we don't really get to know much about his character.

I'm glad I didn't pay any money to see this flick, but it was worth my time. So if there's nothing else on TV , you could do worse.

Another word of advice: if you're going somewhere to pick up some weed and you get pulled over by the police twice before you even get there, then maybe it isn't such a good idea to be hauling hundreds of pounds of weed around. Just a thought.

The only way people watch this is when Comedy Central doesn't have anything interesting to air.

[Nick Zbu · 3/10 · 25 July 2007]

This film has some flaws, and most of those flaws are a lack of anything happening. Possibly the greatest film to show the direness within Fly-Over Country, "Rolling Kansas" is a film in which nothing happens and you don't care about anybody. Like life, it starts, it moves, and then it ends. A few attempts at humor are made, but everything falls very flat. The occasional cameo just reminds the viewer that they could be wasting their life doing something besides watching this movie and the one rock song they bought and used at every single instance.

Do yourself a favor and go see a good movie. This is free and repeatedly frequently on Comedy Central because nobody went to see it, nobody wants to see it, and it's marginally better than dead air. Not to damn with faint praise, but the movie's one rock song is worth listening to. Too bad the movie isn't worth watching.

Thomas Hayden Church made a helluva good movie

[nwanda5 · 9/10 · 9 February 2005]

Every once in a while a movie comes out that you can show to the network of "friends that truly appreciate good movies" and everyone agrees that, indeed, this really is a good movie. Although a rare occasion, when the network shake their unanimous head in agreement, it is so. And as it should be with "Rolling Kansas". Having read the other lukewarm yet predictably lackluster review for this movie, I felt compelled to set the proverbial record straight and clear up a few things. Stoner comedy? Sure the movie has a loose affiliation to the herb if you're looking at the surface of things, but there's a lot more going on than there appears in this fine piece of film-making: Take a closer look and you'll notice that, with the exception of a flashback sequence in the movie's intro, NOBODY SMOKES ANYTHING THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE MOVIE! However, to make up for it, there's an abundance of random five star comedy, Mia Zotolli and Rip Torn's finest work in years and an unexpected twist at the end that you'd be hard pressed to see coming. Add to that a high-larious smaller part played by the writer/director and you have one of the funniest, most originally creative pieces of cinematography I've seen in a long time. But not everybody's into a good plot, believable characters and great directing. If not, go watch dumb and dumberer.

Lame

[redeyethug187 · 1/10 · 3 November 2007]

This movie is retarded a cheap movie that tries to be a stoner movie because the characters are looking for pot but none of them are smokers just a bunch of garbage Thomas Hayden church should not direct anymore especially this movie which is a waste of film. People who liked this movie gave good comments but from all the people on here some are just retarded and don't watch movies so they think that any bad movie is good the actors suck and the movie sucks balls.

I think that many people are going to be upset because this movie tries to make itself look like the ultimate weed movie when it is just the worst movie about weed that I have ever seen I hope that people will stop the director from directing crap like this even weed cannot make this movie funny or entertaining .

Entertaining and very amusing

[ardle69 · 9/10 · 14 December 2004]

The movie itself is fairly uneventful, not much happens, but it's funny as hell. Great performances by the cast of actors who all played tiny parts, but very funny parts in other films. It is in a sense a stoner movie, but for most of the film the characters aren't smoking and most of the jokes don't stem from stoner jokes. The humor comes from the fact that these characters have nothing in common and most of them are ridiculously over the top. However, this film entertains from start to finish with off beat humor and solid directing from Thomas Hayden Church. Figuring the power DVD has this film could definitely develop a cult following. ***1/2 out of ****

Typical 80's vibe crap

[jdb-4 · 2/10 · 9 March 2007]

Every time I see a film like this I get sick to my stomach. When I watch a movie I like to see what I see in everyday life. As I go through my day I see blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos etc...How do you cast a film and don't even think of the possibility that other ethnic groups will walk past you? I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose but pay attention. I don't care if it takes place in Kansas or South Central. All I saw was one token black. This was typical in the 80's. Hey! it's 2007, with all the rappers, singers and athletes working as actors Thomas Haden Church could have paid more attention to his cast. Aren't actors supposed to be more liberal?

It's Like a Beastie Boys Video!

[Dinkadoo85 · 20 July 2004]

Everything in this weed-coated Thomas Haden Church adventure reminds me of almost any of the Beastie Boys music videos I've seen. Everything from the faded, washed-out, sepia-toned coloring to the fake mustaches worn by THC to conceal his identity as the agent and the state trooper.

It really makes me wonder why the Beasties haven't gotten THC to direct one of their newer videos. That would be cool :)

Anyway, the movie is one of the more original films I've seen lately. It isn't too deep, as popularized in newer films because of Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, etc. and it doesn't rely on expensive computer animation to keep people entertained a la The Specials, a movie featuring the almighty Church. Too bad that comedy is beginning to fail in the box office (and on network TV) or we'd start seeing more movies like this. Everybody already knows my favorite character is Dinkadoo... just look at my "net name". If I had to make a recommendation to anyone in order to see this film, I'd tell them that the film's humor is similar to Office Space (which I enjoy a lot).

One of the worst of all-time

[hypercrit · 1/10 · 30 March 2005]

I've read the positive comments on this movie. I assume people who were in this movie must've come to this site to give it some good press because this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I always watch the whole film despite the quality or lack there of which explains why I watched this whole movie, but I don't think I laughed even once during the duration of this film. The jokes were mostly very bad, but when the jokes had some promise, the delivery was off. If you liked it, maybe you should lay off the buds because you need to preserve the 5 or 6 brain cells you have left. This movie had a poor script, bad acting, poor directing, weak plot... nothing of virtue and was not entertaining. If you haven't seen this movie, don't.

Good Movie

[udo78 · 8/10 · 18 January 2006]

This was a very good movie.. I was surprised I never heard of it before it was on Comedy Central.. a lot of the actors are great at comedy... Much better than what I expected when it came on at 2 am one morning. I highly recommend this movie for both stoners and non-stoners alike! There is a variety of different types in this movie... The movie storyline and era are timeless.. and could take place this year or in1965... Hard to tell when it is supposed to be. If you have the chanceto rent or view it on TV, take it.

I would give this movie an 8 out of 10. It could show some actual "use" to give it a little more authenticity.. also seems that they tried to rush it a little.. But I am sure it was edited for TV... I would also love to see if there were some deleted scenes!

Watch Cheech and Chong Instead...

[jk8n · 3/10 · 6 December 2005]

...Or better yet, watch Fandango if you want to see a really intelligent and funny male college age road flick. Rolling Kansas sounded promising (in fact the program guide gave it 2.5 out of 4 stars which usually means it's fairly watchable) but I pretty much fast-forwarded through it. Usually road trip movies have great music, but I can't even recall whether there was music. The only high point was a small role with Rip Torn as a wise old hitchhiker/guru. Otherwise the jokes and timing missed all along the way. The four main characters are unknown actors and I don't remember seeing any of them in another movie. (Oh, yeah, I see that Thos. Hayden Church was in it, but he's in everything, good, bad or indifferent). This movie is about as funny as watching someone else stoned when you're not.

Outstanding!

[General_G · 10/10 · 30 August 2005]

Great movie! I have read a lot of bad reviews about Rolling Kansas, but I disagree with all of them. Fantastic! Three brothers and two friends driving up two states to a magical forest of marijuana and they make a new friend whos a hitchhiker who is played by Rip Torn! At the end they made $450,000 more then they were trying to make. I also like the time setting of the movie, around the early nineties. The main character in the movie, Dick, never has anything go right in his life. He just had gone through a divorce, his T-Shirt business was failing and he lost a lot of his stuff in the divorce. Its nice that they all had a happy ending and that at the end Oldman got himself a melon truck and went to visit his friends in Texas.

Absoluelty rediculously awful and unfunny movie

[OJT · 1/10 · 6 February 2019]

If you like your comedies intelligent and not with people in their mid thirtees playing high school kids, finding it funny to say poop and fox piss, and having fun with disabled, homosexuals and old people, this movieaintfor you. Not a single funny moment, and a complete time waster of a movie. The plot about them driving on a long trip the weekend before their final exams to find a big field of free weed, isn*t worth commenting. Stay away at all costs!

Entertaining, but nothing special

[jellyneckr · 30 September 2004]

Stoner comedies seem like the easiest type of movies to make. All it takes is a decent cast, a bunch of drug jokes, a good soundtrack, and a smattering of crude humor to make at least a somewhat enjoyable stoner comedy. However, as HOW HIGH proved, not all stoner comedies are funny. Some just downright suck. Luckily, ROLLING KANSAS isn't one of them. That's not to say that ROLLING KANSAS is going to be on my list of best stoner comedies any time soon, but it provided enough laughs to keep me entertained throughout its running time. It wasn't hilarious yet it was funnier than I expected it to be since I was expecting it to be really awful. Recommended to fans of the genre.

This movie sucks

[christian-bekkhus · 1/10 · 9 June 2005]

I mean, nothing happens, 5 dumb kids go to Oklahoma to find a magical forest of marijuana... this could've been fun, if it hadn't been for the 5 worst actors in the world. And the dialogs weren't even half an inch of fun. The only thing that I almost showed my teeth of, was when the dumb cops stopped the teenagers in either Oklahoma or Kansas... The plot could have been fun, had it not been for abysmal interpretation. If you even think about watching this piece-of-crap movie, don't. How dumb is it, that the guy gets away from the cops by telling them he's gay, like his friend did (just that he wasn't pretending...) and there's that dumb hick joke about the several meanings to the word "gay". I'm laughing my hair off.......NOT....... Anyway... WORST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN!!

I just viewed this gem !

[caser3704 · 8/10 · 8 January 2005]

As far as marijuana themed counter culture comedies go, there aren't many that are memorable. " Half Baked " With Jim Bruer & Dave Chappelle had it's moments ( Including Jerry Garcia as an apparition ) as did the Cheech & Chong movies (With unexpected guest appearances like Tom Skerritt or Paul Rubens ) But for many , the C&C comedy albums were funnier ( Especially when elevated ) .True worshipers of the sacred leaf were left to appreciate quick references in mainstream comedies for validation , like Booger offering the rest of his nerd comrades " wonder-joints " Or Karen Allen getting stoned with Donald Sutherland in " Animal House " & so on .I watched " Rolling Kansas " for the first time a few days ago , & I enjoyed it so much I went back for a second viewing . It had all the signs of a decent roll-a-fatty comedy , including hot farm-girl strippers, senior citizens ( both irritated & aloof ) Broderick Crawford style law enforcement officials ( still laughing about officer mam .. sir ... ) & of course the magical pot field of government grown & subsidized Maryjane. I am very much a Rip Torn fanatic , & after watching I went out for a drive praying to run into some crusty Oldman character who would chuck corncobs at my head & brag about a hefty sack of chronic whilst rolling a hog-leg( yet another handle for you know what ) OK , disregard my inane ramblings of joy and see it anyway , I can't do it justice with my own observations-There are a lot of subtle references to great movies like deliverance style banjo highlights every time prison is mentioned , or the " We hate outsiders " sentiment that recalls Fonda,Hopper & Nicholson walking into a rural diner in " Easy Rider " ( Complete with a plump waitress named " Dot " ) If I haven't ruined it already I must say I was a little bummed at the ending . To quote fat Freddy from the Freak Bros." Times with dope & no money will get you through better than times with money & no dope "

I can't believe people actually like this movie!

[rock_n_rolland · 1/10 · 4 May 2005]

Yes, I admire the independent spirit of it all, but it's like Road Trip with a bad cast and no budget.

I chuckle when I watch American comedies, I don't laugh. This movie made me laugh, but only because of the abundantly obvious attempts to simulate high-budget American high school/pot-flicks.

If you want good independent American comedy with pot-references, go watch Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater flicks or something. Don't waste your time on this piece of sh't movie.

I mean, how can you take these comments seriously when most people are complaining about the characters not smoking pot!

And by the way: in Norway it's called "Dude, Where's My Pot"!

I enjoyed this movie and maybe you would too...

[cigar_stash · 8/10 · 1 September 2005]

In my opinion this was a good movie. I thought that it was funny and entertaining with a good story and good acting, especially since, with the exception of Rip Torn, i had never heard of any of the actors before in my life. My only real complaint about this film is that THEY Didn't SMOKE ANY WEED except for the hippie dude at the beginning during the flashback sequence. They showed some J's and there was a scene when they were in the car with Rip Torn's character where they were all laughing at stupid s**t and were presumably high but no actual smoking which was a disappointment. But I still enjoyed the film, especially Kevin, the gay and stupid friend cause he was f***ing hilarious. Also the hot naked chick was awesome and all the weird seniors and the humorous cops. And it had a good "everything worked out" ending too. Anyways, good movie, you should check it out. pz.

you can tell its a indie film, everything is so amateur

[between6and30 · 4/10 · 2 April 2005]

This movie was extremely disappointing, I thought it would be another 'marijuana comedy' but don't be mislead, it's not at all. There are barely any weed-related jokes that come to mind, I don't even think they smoke any weed in this movie. The marijuana field is merely a plot device.

My impression after seeing this film was that four friends were bored one summer and decided to write up a script full of (their idea of) witty dialog and make a movie. The product is bland dialog supported by mediocre acting, to say this movie has no 'hook' is a huge understatement. Don't waste your time or money.

One of the least funny comedies ive ever seen

[scoobyboobruh · 1/10 · 13 August 2022]

I didnt laugh once this film, its truly some of the worst ive seen. The acting isn't terrible, its mid at best, but the script and directing are such garbage it makes the actors look like complete amateurs. The jokes were stale then and sure as hell stale now. This film is a waste, waste of time, waste of space, waste of a movie. Awful.