BA_Harrison

I get the feeling that I should have watched Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong before this one, because there's plenty about this film that had me confused, not least the inclusion of Gingerdead Man and Ooga Booga, and Luann now being called Sarah. However, I do suspect that a clearer understanding of matters wouldn't have made much difference to my enjoyment of this crappy film, which is worse than parts 1-3.

This one sees Rabbit (Sonny Carl Davis) opening a topless bowling alley where patrons can also score some weed, but Evil Bong and Gingerdead Man show up to cause trouble. Director Charles Band seems more interested in getting numerous tattooed women to take off their tops than he is in telling a coherent story, the special effects are terrible, with some really bad CGI, and the humour is even more crude and puerile than before (the 'highlight' being a sex scene between Gingerdead Man and a buxom bimbo).

The film is only 53 minutes, but feels a lot longer.

After the first Evil Bong film, I figured completing the franchise was going to take me a very long time to complete, but sometimes it's best to get these things over as quickly as possible, like ripping off a band-aid. So here I am at part 3D: The Wrath of Bong, which follows almost exactly the same formula as the previous two films, albeit with a sci-fi twist.

An alien bong arrives on Earth in a meteorite-like spacecraft, where it is discovered by a wife-killer who sells it to stoners Brett (Brian Lloyd) and Bachman (Mitch Eakins), who now run a weed shop in Venice Beach. The extraterrestrial paraphernalia has plans to take over Earth, sucking Bachman into its alien world and turning him into a walking marijuana plant. Rabbit (Sonny Carl Davis) is also sucked into the bong, where he is connected up to a jizz-milking machine. It is up to Larnell (John Patrick Jordan) and Alistair (Peter Stickles) to try and rescue their friends.

Part 3 features the same lame stoner humour as the first two film (complete with fart gags!), and the same level of gratuitous nudity to try and keep the series' intended audience - young men - from switching off. The special effects and production design are really cheap (especially the alien realm), the acting is basic and, if you've already seen the first two films, it will all feel repetitive and uninspired (the invasive space fungus carried by the meteorite is surely ripped off from Creepshow, and Nurse Hookah reminded me a lot of Lisa Marie in Mars Attacks).

The ending left me with a big question: after destroying the alien bong, how did the friends manage to get back to Earth? Or maybe I'm just thinking too hard about this dumb movie.

After the dreadful first Evil Bong movie, I very much doubted that I would tackle any of the sequels in a hurry, but curiosity got the better of me: I needed to see if there was any way that part 2 could be worse. Having just watched Evil Bong 2: King Bong, I can say that it is marginally more entertaining than the first film. Or maybe I just lowered my expectations a lot.

This one sees stoner pals Bachman (Mitch Eakins), Brett (Brian Lloyd) and Larnell (John Patrick Jordan) suffering from exaggerated side effects of smoking pot from Ebee, the evil bong: Bachman suffers from narcolepsy, Brett has got an extreme case of the munchies, and Larnell has lowered sexual inhibitions (meaning he dry humps everything).

Tracking down the origins of the bong, the guys travel to South America to see if they can figure out a way to cure their conditions, accompanied by nerd Allistair (Brett Chukerman) and delivery guy Rabbit (Sonny Carl Davis). In the Amazon, they meet sexy scientist Velicity (Amy Paffrath), who solves their problems with a powerful strain of marijuana. But when Rabbit is abducted by the topless Poontang tribe and becomes trapped inside Ebee's ex, King Bong, Larnell and his friends go to the rescue.

Although slightly more amusing than part one, King Bong is still extremely dumb, and follows practically the same formula, with the guys' rescue attempt leading them to enter the realm of King Bong, where the Poontang tribe try to seduce them and kill them. If you're into the weed culture, and watch this stoned, then you might find it more enjoyable than I did. I rate King Bong 3/10 - and I now get the horrible feeling that I'm going to go against my better judgment and watch the rest.