Never Goin Back

Cheech and Chong, Harold and Kumar, meet your natural heirs Jessie and Angela.

Augustine Frizzell's debut forces us to spend nearly 90 minutes in the company of two unbearably dumb protagonists.

"Never Goin' Back" is happily silly and low-down and willing to indulge in gross humor, while presenting a story about friendship and about the consequences of growing up with no money or prospects.

"Never Goin' Back" owes much of its watchability to the actresses' natural chemistry. Together, they paint a portrait of adolescent friendship so vibrant that it makes up for much of the movie's structural flaws.

Anchored by a pair of effervescent and authentically lived-in performances from Mitchell and Morrone, "Never Goin' Back" is a sweaty, silly summer adventure, and a sincere shout-out to the power of best friendship.

A rude, crude, rambling, raucous, sometimes quite gross and often very funny and endearing slice of lives we don't often see portrayed on the big screen.

Transcends its stoner comedy roots and makes something unique out of them.

The smartly dumb Never Goin' Back is a blissfully low-rent comedy that occasionally approaches the rarified, hazy air of the sainted first half of Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. Absolutely no lessons are learned, thankfully.

That you have no trouble believing the characters' actions may say something about the actresses' abilities. Neither, however, do you care.

You don't often see these characters on screen -- young, financially embarrassed but unashamed women determined to seek their hedonistic bliss while taking neither guff nor notes from the menfolk.

Powered by the impeccable chemistry of Mitchell and Morrone and an eclectic debut by writer/director Augustine Frizzell, Never Goin' Back is a laid back summer comedy that makes you eager to see what the mentioned three will do next.

Screamingly funny and unexpectedly quite tender. It's like "Beaches," but with bumps of blow and weed butter.