Pineapple Express

 

Seth Rogen looks to be developing a hernia as he carries James Franco to safety in Pineapple Express

by Gary Sundt

So, I’m going to be very honest and say I’ve smoked some weed in my time. I’ll be even more honest and say I’ve smoked a whole lot of weed. Sometimes there were adventures, other times it was sitting on the couch playing multiplayer Halo 2 for hours on end (badly, I might add). So it goes without saying that I get the whole “stoner comedy” thing. I had to give up pot a few years ago (I have control issues), but I will say I never felt more in the mood to be stoned then while watching Pineapple Express.

Now, there are many reasons to get high, and Dale (Seth Rogen) certainly has some good ones. Is there a breed of individual more hated by total strangers than the process server? He issues subpoenas to people, and has fun dressing up in a variety of costumes to make his job a little easier on himself when bearing the bad news. It is no wonder this guy is stoned on a regular basis. He buys his weed from small-timer Saul (James Franco), who in turn buys his weed from a middleman named Red (Danny R. McBride), who in turn buys his weed from Ted Jones (Gary Cole), the big dealer in town who is currently at odds with the competition (referred to only as “The Asians”).

It just so happens that Dale has to serve Mr. Jones, but everything goes terribly awry when the server sees the dealer shoot one of The Asians. Dale freaks out, and ditches the joint he’s smoking during his rather clumsy getaway. He heads over to Saul’s, throws up on his printer, and informs him of the situation. At this point in the film, it is well-known that the weed Dale was smoking was a new strain called Pineapple Express, and Saul is the only person who has gotten the hook-up thus far. Accordingly, the guys go into hiding, causing them to have many mini-adventures, while two of Ted’s thugs (Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson) work to track them down.

With Pineapple Express, I believe we’ve witnessed the mainstream return of marijuana (if that event hadn’t come already). Couldn’t be a better time either, because I know way too many people who get stoned on a regular basis who will be quoting this movie for years. The movie is at its best in those quotable stoner moments, where Saul and Dale talk through the random whatnot that floats through their brain. It also provides an interesting twist on the whole Abbot and Costello thing, with the big guy playing it straight while the skinny guy gets to be goofy.

It should be noted, however, that this is a mighty violent movie, which causes it to feel a little disjointed most of the time. The script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the writing team who gave us Superbad) is pretty solid and the performances are wonderful, so it feels a little out of place when things get as bloody as they do. Maybe it is a necessary evil, as those are the moments where the target audience will go “OH #$%@!!! YOU SEE THAT BRO?!?!?,” but it seems odd that director David Gordon Green decided to get so graphic with the violence.

While we’re on the subject, I have to stop and ask: What is Green doing here? This is the guy who made two of most utterly wonderful but little seen films of the last 10 years: George Washington and All the Real Girls. I have to wonder what attracted Green to the project, and even more so why producer Judd Apatow felt he was the right fit. Did everyone look at the material and say, “god dammit… we’re going to need somebody really good for this.” Green handles the against-type project well enough, but I am wondering if he was the right fit for this flick.

Perhaps he is, because this stoner comedy has to it a level of authenticity that would probably be unfelt otherwise. Then again, most of the flicks that Apatow is involved in feels that way. Movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad and Knocked Up have a certain spark to them, an energy that occurs in comedy only once in a great while. They seem to be as perfect as their genre will allow them to be, and I think the same can be said for Pineapple Express.

Note: I find it interesting that Apatow and friends have no trouble putting out an R-rated film filled with illegal drug use and violence where the title is a strain of marijuana, while director Kevin Smith has been facing trouble securing an R-rating on his new film, presumably because of a little sex and the word “porno” being in the title. Oh well, Smith got his R, and all is right with the world. Still, interesting stuff…

Running time: 111 minutes. Directed by David Gordon Green. Produced by Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson. Screenplay by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Gary Cole, Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson. A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R