The Gingerweed Man

Even more egregious than the god-awful direction or remarkably dumb script, which is more interested in trading weed puns than developing characters, is how little there is to the story. So, for idiotic reasons known only to the powers that be at Full Moon, The Gingerweed Man, despite being created as one whole entity, was released in two parts on their streaming platform. Part 1 runs 27-minutes, and here is all that happens in it: Buddy is created, Barbara vents to Gingerweed about his habits ruining the business, and Smokahontas kills one, maybe two people.

Here’s the synopsis of part 2, minus any major spoilers. Smokahontas kidnaps Barbara, Gingerweed teams up with a friend (whose inclusion makes no sense!) to save her and Buddy. The duo must figure where she’s being held and how to infiltrate the location for their rescue operation. Given all that, one might imagine part 2 to be the longer one, as it clearly includes more action, but nope. It is a mere 22-minutes long, again including opening and closing credits.

“Full Moon clearly knows how to tap into what the audience of marijuana-loving movie buffs want…”

This means that all the actual action or scenes that could be interesting, such as Gingerweed breaking into the evil corporation’s headquarters to find Barabara are absent entirely or glossed over very quickly. This means The Gingerweed Man has nothing to hook viewers in and get them to care about anyone or anything happening on screen. And at probably only 40 minutes if combined with just one opening and closing credit sequence, there is simply not enough here to justify its existence.

With all that being said, there is one positive. The stinger at the end reveals a nifty twist that should have been much more focused on, as it changes the dynamics between the villain and Gingerweed Man for those familiar with other Full Moon titles (which, I am a fan, despite how this review might make it sound). This is nothing more than a carrot being dangled on a stick, but it at least shows a creativity and originality that is sorely lacking at any other point in the film. It entices with a crazy, everything and the kitchen sink potential that fans will want to see explored.

The Gingerweed Man is terrible on all fronts. The acting is bad, the effects are awful, the story is stretched out far too thin to not even reach feature-length, and it is all so annoying; seriously, Buddy is such an obnoxious presence I wanted to punch my television. If you are in desperate need of this style of humor, the majority of the Evil Bong movies are better, and Weedjies oozes charm and fun in a way the first-time filmmaker fails to get across here. There is nothing here to enjoy or recommend, even to die-hard fans of the studio.