Absurdly Silly Hulu Sci-Fi Comedy Is The Perfect Low-Stakes Watch
If you grew up on dumb comedy films during the late 1990s and early 2000s, you may have a soft spot for the critically panned stoner comedy Dude, Where’s My Car, which is currently streaming on Hulu. While this movie is not a heavy thinker, and certainly won’t ever be on any National Film Registry’s short-list, it is a nostalgia-packed cult classic with a few scenes that still hold up in a modern context. Personally, I still find Dude, Where’s My Car to be an easy low-stakes watch to just throw on randomly when I have 90 minutes to kill and no energy to dedicate to something more serious.
Exactly The Kind Of Humor You’d Expect
Dude, Where’s My Car was written by South Park writer and Dog With a Blog creator Philip Stark, and directed by Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle filmmaker Danny Leiner. The film stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott in the leading roles as Jesse and Chester, two brainless stoners who find themselves in hot water after a night of hard partying results in them losing track of their car, and becoming the center of a grand conspiracy. The cast is rounded out by a number of hilarious performers, including Jennifer Garner, Marla Sokoloff, David Herman, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Bob Clendenin and original Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead Kristy Swanson.
An Epic Night Leads To A Foggy Morning
The narrative of Dude, Where’s My Car begins when the dynamic duo of Jesse and Chester wake up with horrific hangovers and no sign of their vehicle. In a desperate bid to find their car, and figure out what they did the night before, they resolve to retrace their steps using simple clues and some reverse engineering. As they do so, they discover that they have angered their girlfriends, nearly lost their jobs, and earned VIP status at a series of local businesses, including an exclusive strip club that they would normally never get into.
Egregious Escalations Extrapolate To Absurdity
This is just the beginning of their adventure, however, as Jesse and Chester are accosted by multiple groups of strange individuals in search of a device called the Continuum Transfunctioner, which the boys were apparently in possession of during the previous night. These groups include a gang of seemingly alien women with freakishly attractive features, as well as a group of cultists who worship a man named Zoltan. As Dude, Where’s My Car spirals into a bonkers conclusion, the simple search for an automobile becomes a potentially world-ending catastrophe.
A Proto-Hangover Presentation
If you’re thinking this all sounds a bit like a dumbed down version of The Hangover, that’s essentially what you’ll get with this film. The production tends to leap from scene to scene with the intention of centering cheap laughs in place of a concrete story or well-rounded characters, though that wasn’t a problem for the 9-year-old version of me that grew up watching this film on repeat via with UMD minidisc for the original PlayStation Portable. Like many goofball comedies of the time, Dude, Where’s My Car was reviewed harshly by critics, resulting in the film carrying a paltry 16 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Streaming Dude, Where’s My Car On Hulu
GFR SCORE
Not every scene in Dude, Where’s My Car holds up in 2024, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend watching this movie now for the first time. Still, if you have fond memories of this off-the-walls movie, you’re welcome to check out Dude Where’s My Car on Hulu today. Just be sure to indulge in your habits responsibly while viewing, or you never know what kind of antics you’ll get up to by the time the credits roll.
