Puff, Puff, Pass

Dick Dupre (parody of Don Lapre, played by John C. McGinley) opens the movie with a loud, glossy infomercial that immediately catches the eye of two distinct dreamers: Larry (Danny Masterson) and Rico (Ronnie Warner). These two stoners share a cramped one-room apartment and, after swallowing the hype of the pitch, decide to launch a “tiny classified ads” business. The running gag lands early and sticks like a badge: whenever they explain their new “business,” someone asks, “Ads for what?” and they reply with a confident wink, “That’s not the point! It’s complex,” or “The ads themselves… they generate income.” The humor lands in a way that blends clueless ambition with stubborn optimism, giving the film its playful heartbeat.

Their misadventure truly begins when the landlord, Lance (Jonathan Banks), locks them out for being late on rent. With no apartment and little money, the duo scrambles to catch a single thing they care about: The Shawshank Redemption, streaming on TNT in a 24-hour marathon. In a moment of despair, Larry, who has a stubborn car that won’t start, convinces Rico they’ve hit rock bottom and must seek rehab. The lure of basic cable and a new, supposedly clean slate proves irresistible, and Rico agrees to tag along.

Rehab becomes a comic clash of cultures. Larry and Rico find themselves out of place among hard-core addicts and stiff counselors, and to make matters more tangled, the rehab brochure proves to be a sham. They discover they’ve been promised eight channels, not the TNT marathon they hoped for. The night unfolds with typical mischief: the pair bungle around the facility, share impulsive one-night stands with the residents’ women, and end up getting kicked out in short order. Their misfit energy and relentless chatter still mask a real hunger for a better break, a longing that will push them toward a dangerous, moneyed opportunity.

That opportunity arrives when they seek out Big Daddy (Mekhi Phifer), a well-connected but shady figure whose wealth is tied to a high-stakes investment in beachfront property in Nicaragua. Big Daddy sees through their gullibility and believes they’re a setup for a bigger score with his latest plan. The mastermind behind the money, a flashy but anxious buyer named Ice Killa—Cool Crush Ice Killa (Terry Crews)—is ready to meet at a bus station with a load of cash, hoping to seal a deal for a precious collection of antique Indian Head pennies. The coins, however, are forgotten in Larry’s car, and what should be a simple handoff spirals into a frantic chase, with Ice Killa haunted by an unlikely fear of dogs.

The chase threads back to Big Daddy’s world, where the tension peaks: Ice Killa’s presence, Elise’s (Ashley Scott) web of schemes, and Big Daddy’s own tangled motives collide. The realization hits that Elise and Ice Killa were attempting to double-cross them all along, throwing Larry and Rico into a game where trust is scarce and the stakes are high. In a pivot, Big Daddy offers Larry and Rico a different kind of job—working for him in Nicaragua, leveraging a supposedly lucrative beachfront project. The deal echoes the infomercial world that started it all, a flashy promise wrapped in risk and money.

At the airport, a familiar face reappears in a way that blurs lines between scam and salvation: Dupre shows up again, pushing his grandiose pitch into their orbit once more. The film crescendos with a return to the infomercial glamour, this time starring Dupre, Larry, and Rico in a new, self-referential pitch that hints at fortunes—real or imagined—being broadcast to the world. Back at the apartment, the story resets with a twist: two fresh stoners, Jaleel White and Paulo Costanzo, are being berated by Lance for late rent, while Larry and Rico pop up on the TV, hawking their Nicaragua dream as if nothing could go wrong. The crowd on the screen cheers them on with a chorus of “Nicaragua!” fueling the final, almost delirious beat. In disbelief, Lance ends the night by taking a hit from their joint, sealing the film’s spiraling humor and its echo of wishful thinking.

Ultimately, the film is a boisterous, offbeat look at two friends who chase a bigger score through a string of misfires, scams, and improbable luck. It delivers a blend of spoof-inflected charm, neon-soaked infomercial energy, and a stubborn belief that every setback can be spun into a new, shiny opportunity. The characters—ranging from the slick-eyed Dick Dupre to the ambitious Big Daddy and the endearing-but-flawed duo of Larry and Rico—cohere into a cheeky, genre-twisting comedy that reverberates with its own brand of hustle and humor.

Last Updated: October 14, 2025 at 04:07