'HOMEGROWN': DEAD BOSS WITH DRUG CARGO: A STOOGE'S STUFF OF DREAMS

Question: What happens when you cross "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"
with the Three Stooges?

Answer: "Homegrown," a wacky farce noir about three babes in the woods
shepherding a huge marijuana crop to marketable maturity when the murder of
their wealthy boss fills their fool heads with dreams of becoming the
millionaires next door.

So, with Stephen Gyllenhaal as director and co-writer with Nicholas Kazan,
"Homegrown" is off and romping with its spirited cast through a plot that
mingles murder mystery, rustic comedy, outlaw sociology, plant husbandry,
lusty romance and layers of old-fashioned avarice, which is to say
old-fashioned business.

The fun begins when John Lithgow, as Malcolm, the affluent magnate who owns
the crop, decides to pay a flying visit to the Northern California forest
primeval, where his stooges are doing some figurative flying as they tend
the tall plants under their woodland canopy.

But no sooner does the helicopter land than the pilot shoots Malcolm dead.
The stooges, played by Billy Bob Thornton as the grizzled Jack, Hank Azaria
as the horticultural expert Carter and Ryan Phillippe as Harlan, the naieve
newcomer to the trade, are convinced that the rub-out signals the start of
a raid by so-called rippers, who hijack crops.

So the stooges gather up whatever marijuana they can carry and make a
beeline for the home of Lucy (Kelly Lynch), who isn't exactly Carter's
girlfriend any more, but who, nonetheless, isn't exactly unwilling to go to
bed with him, either. (And that's even after the filmmakers, in homage to
Hitchcock, dispatch him with knife in hand into her steamy bathroom while
she is in the shower.) Lucy, the packaging and distribution arm of
Malcolm's marijuana business, helps the stooges ready their haul for sale
while at least temporarily under the impression that Malcolm is still alive.

When the stooges learn that rippers have not stolen the crop, they bury his
body, and Jack, supposedly the most mature, experienced and brainy of the
lot, hatches the idea of pretending that Malcolm is still alive and
arranges to sell the $3 million harvest to Danny (Jon Bon Jovi), one of the
local wholesalers.

In the meantime, Jack tries his hand at impersonating Malcolm on the
telephone and finding out who killed him and why. Along the way, Jamie Lee
Curtis turns up as Sierra Kahan, the doyenne of the local growers'
association; Judge Reinhold as a police officer who pockets a bribe, and
Ted Danson as a man whose name Jack mistakes for Johnny. The name is really
Gianni. He represents a large criminal enterprise and likes toys and
torture. Gyllenhaal, whose credits include "Paris Trout"; Kazan, who wrote
the screenplay for "Reversal of Fortune," and the entire cast have a high
old time huffing and puffing their through this happy sermon on the wages
of greed. PRODUCTION NOTES HOMEGROWN Rating: "Homegrown" is rated R (Under
17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes murder,
shootouts, copious consumption of illegal substances, terrifying threats,
nudity and sexual situations. Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal; written by
Nicholas Kazan and Gyllenhaal, based on a story by Jonah Raskin and
yllenhaal; director of photography, Greg Gardiner; edited by Michael
Jablow; music by Trevor Rabin; production designer, Richard Sherman;
produced by Jason Clark; released by Tri-Star Pictures. Running time: 95
minutes.

This film is rated R. Cast: Billy Bob Thornton (Jack), Hank Azaria
(Carter), Kelly Lynch (Lucy), Jon Bon Jovi (Danny), Ryan Phillippe
(Harlan), Judge Reinhold (Policeman), Matt Ross (Ben Hickson), Matt Clark
(Sheriff), Ted Danson (Gianni), John Lithgow (Malcolm/Robert) and Jamie Lee
Curtis (Sierra Kahan).

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski