MovieChat Forums > Go (1999) Discussion > Anyone think the writer of this movie do...

Anyone think the writer of this movie doesn't know *beep* about drugs?


I find it kind funny the little things in this movie that just aren't quite right. Some of the references to drugs are well...comical at times. For example everyone in the movie refers to ecstasy as "X" when everyone that I've ever heard of refers to it as "E" also when Ronna sells the fake "X" to some kids she tells them " to TAKE a lot of pot with it, like a lot of pot". Any pot head worth his salt knows ya don't "take" pot, ya smoke it duh. And when Ronna gets set up by the undercover cop he acts so friggen obvious it's ridiculous. I suppose he could just suck at it and be nervous but I found it to be a lil unrealistic personally. There may be more examples of this in "Go" but it's been a while since I've seen it and I am rewatching it (about a 3rd into it now) so I'll have to report on that later. Thoughts?

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This film was shot in 1999. X short, for ecstasy was very common vernacular. In fact Xing while on a roll was another iteration of that. Take a lot of pot, maybe a bit awkward. But I think we can agree, still a hilarious movie and amazing the young cameos. Just watching it again, I never realized that was Melissa McCarthy as "Jimmy in makeup"'s roommate.

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Yeah I saw that too (and posted also, lol) about McCarthy. Pretty funny I didn't realize she was even acting back then. Well X may be something I can agree with a lil but only a lil, E is the term I and everyone I knew always used, and Rollin that is. Perhaps it's a regional thing. I like this movie still but part of me just thinks it's tryin to hard to be cool. They were kinda ripping off Pulp Fiction (or trying to at least) . That was a pretty popular thing to do then after it's major success but it seemed like "Go" was made by a big studio attempting to take a stab at trying to make a cool, hip cookie cutter version that would cater to that crowd. "Go" has it's moments but just as the drug references seemed awkward and fake so does this movie in a way, at least to me anyway. Although I do enjoy this film and I love the Confederated Products scene, that's funny *beep*

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Yeah, from the 1992-1996 days, almost everyone I knew used "X" or "ecstasy".

I don't recall anyone ever calling it "E".

Some of the other things did seem a little off. But in the instance of "take it with a lot of pot", that could be Ronna being written to be clueless rather than the screenwriter.

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Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!

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The reason she said to take it with a lot of pot is because it wasn't actually x, it was baby aspirin so the only way to get any effect was to smoke pot with it.

Just sitting there among the zinnias, but the old Chinese man sold it to me anyways. For $1.95.

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The reason she said to take it with a lot of pot is because it wasn't actually x, it was baby aspirin so the only way to get any effect was to smoke pot with it.

While this is true, a real drug user wouldn't say "take a lot of pot" - they would at least say "smoke a lot of pot". If I had heard her say that, I would immediately suspect she was a cop.

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I see where everyone is coming from, i thought it sounded odd at first too. When she said "take it with a lot of pot" she wasn't telling them to "take pot." She was telling them to take the pill with a lot of pot. When you tell someone to take an aspirin, you would say, "take it with water." Take aspirin with water, take the "X" with pot... I hope that makes sense.

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Dreemz I think you could be the most correct of all.

In any case... oh those were the days... Orlando in the Aahz / Beacham Theater days of the early-to-mid 1990s...

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You're makin'... me... beat... up... GRASS!

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I've seen a similar reaction in real life. I gave this dood a hand rolled cigarette and told him it was a spliff (weed + tobaccy). He acted high afterwords even though there was no maryjuana in it. Placebo effect my friend... it's a beautiful thing.

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The guy could also have been lying. I know I've pretended to be drunk / high before at parties so people would stop pestering me to drink until I have liver disease.

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The screenwriter, John August, is in his early 40's, as am I.
I did ecstasy in the late 80's, and my friends and I called it X. E must have come about later, and August might not be aware of that. He may have stopped doing drugs like I did.

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That's the joke. People are so desperate to be "in on things," so to speak, that they will pretend to high or convince themselves they are high for acceptance.

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Welcome to all movies. A majority of screenwriters are sheltered, pasty little man-children that have had very few life experiences.

You're wrong about the X thing, but when you watch this movie it is apparent that both the writer and director were too scared to ever take drugs in their younger life and see the whole scene through a childish Saved By the Bell-esque prism. Ex: The cops running a major sting operation on a random, non-drug dealer for 20 pills is absurd. Katie Holmes implies that every drug dealer is a violent psycho and nobody disputes that notion. Sarah Polley gives fake pills back to the dealer assuming he'll never notice. And on and on and on.

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Well put Bucky. I have heard people say X but they were always posers (or cops) where I come from. Anyone "in the know" called it E but that doesn't mean that's the way it is everywhere I realize. You added some other good examples in the movie though, glad it wasn't just me who noticed these things. Lol

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People where I was (California) in the late 90's called it X. Since this is taking place in socal I think the writer is accurate on what people in that time and place would have called it.

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One of the most ridiculous posts I've ever read. Sarah Polley didn't think that he'd "never" notice. She only needed for him not to notice on that specific night because he was holding Katie Holmes in his apartment complex. The sting operation was to find out who the main person who was selling it was, they weren't going after Sarah Polley thinking that she was the main person. Also, if you recall Katie Holmes was the innocent one. She couldn't handle smoking a joint so why would they "dispute the notion" that she thinks drug dealers. And most drug dealers are violent and psycho.

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yes it was like a Target executive's idea of drug use and raves.

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