- Cheech and Chong in Nice Dreams
As the third of July approaches, I’m reminded of one of the more satisfying double features I’ve attended, Doc Films’ pairing of John Carpenter’s They Live and Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams on Independence Day Eve 2010. The inclusion of Nice Dreams—and on a newly struck 35-millimeter print, no less—can be credited to my friend and exploitation-film historian Joe Rubin, who was on Doc’s programming board at the time. Joe isn’t much of a Cheech and Chong fan—rather, he booked the film out of allegiance to celluloid and, more specifically, a loose-knit group of programmers he met through the Internet. One of these programmers, another celluloid buff, had discovered an ally at the Columbia Pictures archive who’d arrange for the studio to strike a new print of any old film in the catalogue if ten or more repertory programmers requested to show it within a certain window of time. (I don’t know if he still works there or, if he is, whether he’s able to continue this practice.) Joe’s colleague wanted to screen a new print of Nice Dreams as the centerpiece of a Cheech and Chong retrospective he was putting together, so Joe and eight other programmers agreed to request the film to help him realize his plan. Nice dreams indeed!
