The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie Review

Dazed and confused and horny.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 15, 2026

It's some kind of rite of passage for teenage boys to go cruisin' on the main drag lookin' for chicks to pick up. The Stoned Age is in fact built entirely around that seemingly eternal quest, as two best buds named Joe (Michael Kopelow) and Hubbs (Bradford Tatum) maraud through an evening of, well, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll in the vaunted environment of Torrance, California. This film was co-written and directed by James Melkonian, who is on hand in several supplements on this disc detailing how this 1980 set story was (probably pretty obviously) culled from his own experiences as a young man in this very area. The Stoned Age has a kind of loosey-goosey, lived in ambience that is probably one of its strengths, and an amusing lead performance from Tatum (which may recall Sean Penn's Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) provides some goofy energy, but the vignette driven screenplay arguably never provides consistent laughs.

As Melkonian details, The Stoned Age began life as a short named Tack's Chicks, done when Melkonian was at the American Film Institute. That title points to one of the other sidebar characters in this lengthier version, ostensible third wheel Tack (Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez), who is actually the supposed "portal" to the chicks that Joe and Hubbs are hunting. The film kind of stumbles through an overnight array of outlandish characters, and the supporting cast has a number of interesting names including Jake Busey, China Kantner, and Taylor Negron. Frankie Avalon shows up right before the final credits roll in a cameo, though the film perhaps ironically tends to feature considerably harder edged music than Avalon was ever known for.

The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Stoned Age is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films' etailer Lionsgate Limited (with Vestron Video Collector's Series imprint branding) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The Vestron Video series tends not to include any significant technical information, and that's once again the case here, with only their standard "digitally restored" verbiage emblazoned on the back cover. The presentation can look a bit on the wan side a lot of the time, where even in the (admittedly few) brightly lit daytime shots the palette doesn't look especially vivid. The bulk of the film takes place overnight, and there are probably understandable deficits in fine detail in particular due to lighting conditions, but even granted that bit of slack, the presentation can look somewhat soft and ill defined, especially in a lot of midrange and wider framings. Grain can spike at times but generally resolves without any issues.

The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Stoned Age perhaps surprisingly features only a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 track, something that may be especially disappointing given the film's use of so many head banging tunes from a variety of well known acts. The track delivers everything without any inherent issues, other than what I have to assume is a somewhat anemic accounting of the midrange and low end compared to what a lossless codec probably would have provided. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Back to The Stoned Age (HD; 22:22) is an appealing retrospective with a number of fun interviews.


• Tales from The Blue Torpedo: The Stoned Age Reunion (HD; 25:48) features James Melkonian, Rich Wilkes, Michael Kopelow and Bradford Tatum. Even this quartet seems to admit in passing the film has a perhaps narrow fan base.


• Extended Scene (HD; 2:40)


• Legacy Special Features

Audio Commentary with Director and Co-Writer James Melkonian and Co-Writer Rich Wilkes

The keepcase features a reversible sleeve and encloses a digital copy. Packaging also includes a slipcover.

The Stoned Age Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Stoned Age may be so location and time specific that it will be most "accessible" to those who grew up in Southern California in this same general time frame. In that regard, I recently reviewed Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story, and I'd love to know how "accurate" the McDonald Brothers (from Torrance adjacent Hawthorne) feel the movie is. There's evidently a cult audience for this film, but even those fans may be let down by lossy audio and video that could use some refreshing. The supplements are very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.