The Stöned Age: Vestron Collector's Series #38

If there’s one thing that’s tough on any film, especially a low-budget independent feature, it’s being late to the party. Worse, you can be cast off as a clone of a better-received film and dismissed. A strong case for the point would be James Melkonian’s 1994 crazy night stoner comedy  The Stöned Age. Our heroes are certainly dazed and probably more than a little confused about their futures, but this wild one-night ride cuts a different path through Torrence, California, in 1980. 

The night is like any other for stoner teens Hubbs (Bradford Tatum) and Joe(Michael Kopelow). Find some chicks, score some drinks or weed, party, and if all goes to plan, get laid. Problem is, their stash is down to skank, and their mixed bottle of Schnapps isn’t much better than gut rot and they're all out of talls. Worse, no chicks. But then their old pal Tack (Cliffton Collins in an incredible wig) has a line on a pair of hot gals from up north who are down to party. As the pals try to worm their way into the action, these old friends will hit a crossroads in their priorities. 

With the Trimark stamp of rental store quality, The Stöned Age is something of an under-the-radar cult classic. This is the film a generation of fans found thanks to Friday night runs to Blockbuster or the local Mom & Pop rental shop. Arriving in the wake of Dazed and Confused, The Stöned Age may have earned something of a reputation as a clone or tag-along flick, but that dismisses what the film has going for it - it’s got a good heart and plenty of laughs. 

While this film came out in 1994 and I certainly saw it not long after, my clearest memories come from when I witnessed something of a resurgence of this film in the early 2000s. Jockeying a campus convenience store in college, we had a small but respectable DVD and VHS rental selection. Because it was small, he had to regularly rotate titles, but the one that always stayed out was The Stöned Age. It was always getting checked out. At a guess, that little shop probably made a 50-1 profit. If I had a dollar for every time someone picked up an Arizona tea at the shop and quoted “But these are talls, man!” I would have repaid my student loans in record time. 

To that, I haven’t seen The Stöned Age in most of 20 years, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I’d be damned, as soon as pimple-pocked Cliffton Collins pops up with that crazy blonde wig, I was laughing all over again. Nostalgia may be strong with this one, but credit where it’s due, James Melkonian and his co-writer Rich Wilkes, with their dedicated cast delivered a small-budget coming-of-age feature that’s worth plugging in for - even 30 years later.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
The Stöned Age fires up for its first Blu-ray release as the 38th entry in the Vestron Video Collector’s Series line from Lionsgate. Pressed on a Region A BD50 disc, the disc is housed in a standard case with slipcover and alternate original videostore insert artwork. The disc loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options. The included digital slip is not compatible with Movies Anywhere.

Making its Blu-ray debut, The Stöned Age comes to party with a respectable 1080p 1.85:1 transfer. I don’t have any details on the vintage of the transfer, but at a guess, I’d say we’re looking at an older HD master, but it’s in pretty good shape. While fine details and cinematic film grain don’t necessarily pop, it’s free of any speckling or damage issues. The closer the object, the better the details, so facial features, the wild hair styles, etc., do see a nice upgrade. Colors are pretty good with decent saturation. Black levels are okay; they get pretty close to crush, but don’t quite breach that point. I hadn’t seen this film in 20-plus years, and I’d say it’s certainly better than merely “watchable,” but I’d also have loved to see a full-fledged restoration effort to let those details really pop.

Similar to the video transfer, we’re making do with a solid but not blow-your-hair-back amazing Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. For covering the basics, the dialog is at least clean and clear without issue. The Blue Öyster Cult tunes come through nicely. Essential sound effects for various locations and parties prove lively enough. I have a hunch that if we’d been given a lossless track, there would be a bit more heft in the channels, but as is, this gets the job done.

32 years later, the cult fandom of The Stöned Age ensures that we score some solid extra features. Now, I’d never picked this up before now, as I mentioned before, it was a rental favorite, so I never owned the VHS or DVD, so with that what we’re getting is a pretty nice selection. The archival commentary with James Melkonian and Rich Wilkes returns, but we’re also treated to two great retrospective featurettes that run almost 50 minutes combined. The stories from the reunion segment are pretty damned hilarious! There might not be a ton of extras, but they're quality materials.

• Audio Commentary featuring Rich Wilkes and James Melkonian 
• Back to the The Stöned Age (HD 22:22)
• Tales from the Blue Torpedo: The Stöned Age Reunion (HD 25:48)
• Extended Scene (SD 2:40)

You don’t have to make a great movie for it to stick in the lexicon of cult classics; it just has to be good, and to some extent, I think hit at the right time. There’s a growing conversation about how great the 90s were for movies, and I think that’s true - but I don't think that's strictly limited to what hit theaters or were mega blockbusters. The 1990s were still an era where a film could do little or no business and still find a following on video through rental shops. And not every film needed to be The Shawshank Redemption caliber to earn that reputation.

The Stöned Age is a great example of a film that probably didn’t make much money theatrically, but I’d be damned if it didn’t rent like gangbusters on tape! It established a healthy cult following that’s thriving today and eager for a new release. Maybe there’s just something about two dimwits looking to get stoned and score while maybe learning a life lesson along the way that clicked with a generation. Revisiting the film after so long, I was tickled to find it’s still damned funny, still entertaining, and not just a nostalgia bomb. Making its Blu-ray debut, The Stöned Age comes home with a decent A/V package - I’d love to have seen some more TLC there, but as is, it’s good - with a very entertaining selection of new and archival extras. This one will definitely play for the middle-aged collectors like myself, but for newcomers, definitely consider this one Worth A Look  

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