A List of Great Party Films for Spring Break

ByABC News
March 21, 2001, 3:27 PM

March 22 -- There comes a time when you can't even fathom another tequila shot even if 20 of your closest friends are bellowing, spitting and squealing "drink" as they stand two inches from your sunburned, bloated cheeks.

This is perhaps when you take a clue from the old Tao belief that the journey is the reward. Watching others make the journey toward oblivion can be quite cathartic and you might even learn something. Several movies have dealt with the horror and the downfall of alcohol and drug abuse. In the spirit of Spring Break we've gathered some of the finest party movies worth digging out of the dust in your video store. They each revel in the blinding dizziness that only too many drinks, tokes or pills can induce.

Life is just a series of highs and lows and the search for joy, according to Cheech and Chong. In Up in Smoke (1978), Cheech and Chong's first popular movie, the search for the next high is plot, not subtext. It's a modern road trip through Los Angeles which finds Cheech and Chong in memorable scenes like this one: Chong: "Hey man, how am I driving?"

Cheech: "I think we're parked, man." This is definitely the classic stoner movie that all other stoner movies must try and live up to.

Depressing and Uplifting Drunken Tales

Oddball party movies involving mismatched friends and lovers who find themselves together in a sticky situation is usually fine fodder for party movies. The king of this genre is Animal House (1978). It's still enjoyable because at its core it's about losers who want more power, the downtrodden getting even and getting drunk and even, in the end, getting the girl. John Belushi gives his finest performance as Bluto, a bloated, mumbling frat mascot of sorts.

Alcohol is a depressant, so in depicting this fact in great detail Leaving Las Vegas offers this telling line by Nicholas Cage's character Ben: "I'm not sure if I lost my family because of my drinking, or if I'm drinking because I lost my family." And so, the cheap and faded landscape of Vegas and Ben's life mesh as the protagonist attempts to drink himself to death. Directed by Mike Figgis, Leaving Las Vegas depicts both the hilarious nature of being drunk coupled with the sometimes acute depression that accompanies drunkenness. "Between the hundred-and-one-proof breath and the occasional drool, some interesting words fall from your mouth," notes Sera, the prostitute Ben falls for.