HOMEGROWN (1998)

HOMEGROWN Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Azaria, Kelly Lynch, John Lithgow, Ryan Phillippe, Ted Danson (1998, Columbia TriStar, R, $104.99) This Reefer Madness whodunit set in the cedar-hot-tub hills of Northern California tells the tale of three pot-farming stooges (Thornton, Azaria, Phillippe) who smell cash when their wealthy boss (Lithgow) is murdered, leaving them to reap the profits of a $3 million crop -- if they can escape the law and the lawless. The script by Nicholas Kazan (Fallen) and Stephen Gyllenhaal (Losing Isaiah director) feels a little paranoid -- too bad the writers backed off from an all-out druggy farce and chose to play it safe instead with more cops-and-robbers realism. Some good stuff: Danson's cameo as a toy-manufacturing mobster threatening to sic his poodle on one of the burnouts. B

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