ROLLING KANSAS (2003) - 11/21/2024

Revisiting a Comedy Central mainstay

I don’t know what prompted me to IMDB Rolling Kansas the other morning, but here’s a tidbit of information I learned while looking it up: Thomas Haden Church has written one film and directed one film. That film is Rolling Kansas.

Now, if you’re not familiar with this 2003 comedy about following a map to find a magical forest of weed, I don’t blame you. I can’t imagine that thing played well outside of video rental stores and Comedy Central - where it seemed to always be on. But it lived in perpetuity there and is a weird core memory of my childhood, almost in the same way any obscure film does that you caught on TV at a certain age.

Listen, this thing is very not good and a lot of the comedy doesn’t necessarily hold up - predominantly because 21 years later, weed is basically legal everywhere in the U.S. Yet, here I was rewatching what I can only assume is a passion project of an actor. And listen, I’m happy it exists and I’m happy it got made. But man, this is one of those films that can only benefit from being ripped off of your gourd.