What can I say? I love stoner humor — and I got plenty of it without actually having to inhale at the new Seth Rogen/James Franco flick, Pineapple Express, which opened to glowing critical acclaim and a healthy toke of dough at the box office. While I laughed myself into near seizures, I had to pause and think about how there hasn’t really been a female driven stoner comedy.

Why wasn’t there a female stoner comedy scorched into our collective memory; a film that could stand the test of stoner time? I could not for the life of me recollect ever seeing any female comedy duos like Rogen and Franco or Cheech and Chong. I would love to have a protagonist I can identify with and I have a feeling a lot of movie watching females feel the same way, too.

When we do see women in pot smoking flicks they are most likely looking down at the loser stoner boyfriend, like Katherine Heigl’s character in Knocked Up. You never see female stoners concocting hilarious plans to take over the world, save the object of their affection or feed their munchies like the dudes get to do when they are feeling White Castle. Sure, there’s Mary Louise Parker playing the MILF-weed queenpin on Showtime’s Weeds, but that’s television. (You have to give it up to Mary-Kate Olsen though for playing a great pot-smoking Christian bohemian on the show.)

Film is different, and I can’t help but wonder if there is a new kind of celluloid glass ceiling for women to conquer. We’re seeing more mainstream acceptance of a highly contentious sub-cultural pastime and I for one know plenty of communities of women that partake in a little puff the magic dragon. Do women want a little stoner humor to call their own? … continue reading

This week, the Retro Reviewers ponder a life of crime and bad mob accents in their review of Set It Off.

The film stars several powerhouse African-American actresses, including Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Kimberly Elise and Vivica Fox. It also has plenty of girl-power, guns-blazing, bank-robbing action.

Next episode, the ladies will take on Bound.

AE reader GustavChristoff has kindly transcribed the episode for our hearing impaired readers.