Key players: Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin, Lou Adler, Tom Skerritt, Stacy Keach

Why it's great: Cheech and Chong were part of a particular moment in Los Angeles comedy, and their films aren't just a record of their work, but also snapshots of the entire LA comedy scene at the moments they were made.  "Up In Smoke" is a gorgeous movie if you see it in its full widescreen beauty, and it feels like a natural evolution from the films of the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers in earlier days.  People dismiss Cheech and Chong as stoner humor, but the real joke lies more in the way they run wild over convention and societal expectation, freaks on the loose, amiable idiots that tear down any institution they encounter.

- Drew McWeeny