High Times Presents:
The Cannabis Cup
(2003)
review by Head Cheeze

Every culture has it's pilgrimages. The Jewish have the Wailing Wall, the Indians have Amanarth Yatra, and potheads have Amsterdam. It's a little slice of heaven for the truly committed doper who longs for a simpler time in which there were brownies in every oven and a bud on every table. The country's relaxed drug policy's enlightened attitude toward marijuana has made it THE definitive dream destination for stoners around the world, so what better place for High Times magazine to run it's annual cultivation contest, The Cannabis Cup?

Started back in 1998, The Cannabis Cup has drawn in competitors from around the world, each sporting their own strains and methods, all vying for the vaunted Cup (although something tells me that bringing said cup home would be akin to hanging a sign outside of your house saying "Great Weed Grown Here! Arrest Me Now!). This new documentary from the folks at High Times covers the contest from it's humble beginnings all the way through the riotous affair that was it's 2002 competition, along with some funny parodies and sketch bits (Wake and Bake Amsterdam is the stoner alternative to The Today Show). While the extra bits are fun, I personally favoured the footage of the competition itself. It reminded me a bit of a food competition in which people sample the work of great chefs, but instead...well...smoke their weed. It's a really fun and informative flick, although it goes without say that whether or not you'll like it depends on whether or not you like the green green ganja. I'm a staunch supporter of the bud, so I was smiling all the way through The Cannabis Cup (although some of the "sketch" stuff was a little long in the tooth and groan inducing). However, if you're of the Just Say No mindset, this film will leave you colder than an Eskimo orgy unless you're willing to sit through the abundant sampling scenes and view it from a horticultural perspective.

In other words, stoners need only apply.

The DVD from Koch Entertainment is a pretty ambitious platter for a film whose core audience probably won't be able to figure out it's menus, but that's okay, seeing that some of the menu features don't actually work! I don't know if this is a case of bad manufacturing or a trick to mess with the intoxicated viewer, but, in any event, I found that selecting certain features simply started the film again. This isn't the case with all of the extras, just the chapter jumps and the really cool "Jump to a Strain" option. The Strain option DOES take you to your targeted weed variety, it's just getting back to the strain menu that's a problem. Once you pick your poison, you've got to go back to the main menu, call up the Strain menu again, and then pick another. It's a mildly inconvenient glitch, but a glitch nontheless.

The picture quality is really nice. I watched the film on my flat LCD screen computer monitor because Digital Video looks almost Hi-Def on the thing, and The Cannabis Cup is no exception. While all of the crazy anomalies of video are here (ultra white skies, fluttering edges, and the occasional spot of digital noise) the overall quality is superb. Close-ups of glistening green buds are so vivid and lifelike it makes you want to reach into your television and grab them (which I tried to do.....). The Audio is servicable, but it's shortcomings are most noticeable during the many musical numbers, including a tune from ska-punk progenitors Fishbone, whose presence alone made this a worthwhile viewing.

The Cannabis Cup is obviously not for everyone. If you're not a stoner you probably won't make it past the first twenty minutes. However, if you enjoy frosty mug hits, gravity bongs, and the thought of seeing pounds of grade-A buds being thoroughly inspected by like-minded folks, The Cannabis Cup is right up your seedy little alley.