Review: ‘Pineapple Express’

Ram Man:

We already had Harold and Kumar sightseeing around Cuba this year so I thought to myself “Do we need another stoner buddy flick?” I did like Superbad so I gave in and checked out Pineapple Express. Pineapple Express written by and starring Seth Rogen (Superbad,Knocked Up) and James Franco (Spiderman Trilogy) as a couple of stoners that end up in the wrong place at the wrong time caught in between rival factions of organized crime.

Pineapple Express begins with a sort of Homage to the classic Reefer Madness with a flash-back scene (in black and white) from the 50’s where General Brat (James Remar) of the U.S. Army is conducting secret tests on the repercussions of soldiers smoking marijuana. They rule it “ILLEGAL!”

Flash-forward to present day LA. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen), talk radio junkie, is caught in traffic..getting high while serving subpoenas to unsuspecting people at the jobs. Dale decides to replenish his supply on his way to serve his last subpoena. Saul Silver (James Franco) is Dale’s drug dealer. Saul is a stoner with principles: he only deals weed and only does it to keep his granny in the finest of retirement homes. Saul has ambitions of someday becoming a structural engineer..right, take another hit Saul. Saul introduces Dale to the finest marijuana ever grown:Pineapple Express. Th hear Saul describe it “It’s smells like God’s Vagina”. I guess that says it all. Saul also explains to Dale to keep it on the down low because Pineapple Express is exclusive to him. Dale decides to sample the new weed outside the house of his next “victim” who happens to be the city’s most ruthless drug-lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole). This is the wrong place/wrong time part. Dales witness an execution of a rival gang member by Ted’s crooked cop girlfriend Carol (Rosie Perez). Dales dumps his roach of the new weed and sideswipes three cars in his exit that is noticed by everyone in the neighborhood. Ted finds the remnants of the joint and knows whose dope it is. The chase then ensues. Dale and Saul go on the lamb with Ted Jones and his hired thugs(Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) out to erase them while the Chinese Triads are following everyone to avenge the death of their man. Amber Heard (Mandy Lane) and Danny Mc Bride (Heartbreak Kid) give some great supporting performances as Dales high-school girlfriend and Saul’s supplier. All forces finally meet at the very same secret bunker the Army was using in the beginning of the film for the last-blast slobber-knocker fight.

Pineapple Express, while it’s not a laugh riot throughout, is a really good buddy flick. Franco gives a great performance, I almost think he may have actually been stoned during filming. The only thing that i can knock about Pineapple Express is the “Bad Guys”. I felt more threatened by my chihuahua at home than I was from Gary Cole and Rosie Perez. Pineapple Express is a fun ride down the marijuana highway, I guess the only way better to see the movie is to get some of Saul’s special weed and bring the bong to the theater!

(3.75 stars out of 5)

Michelle:

In this zany film from Judd Apatow, life is good for dealer Saul (Franco) and stoner Dale (Rogen) with the newest weed on the block, the Pineapple Express. When Dale witnesses a murder by a crime boss (Cole) and bad cop (Perez), things go from bad to worse when he panics and drops the joint. Then he and Saul are quickly on the run for fear that this rare weed will lead directly back to them.

The Pineapple Express’s train of graphic violence speeds straight through this joke-filled comedy. The filmmakers found the right balance between keeping it light and the main characters bloody, impending doom. There’s more than one scene that funnyman Danny McBride’s, “Red”, steals right out from under Rogen. Directed by David Gordon Green, ‘Pineapple Express’ is more shtick to add to Apatow’s ever growing repertoire.

(4 out of 5 stars)

Travis:

Stoner comedies have a tendency towards the ridiculously stupid end of the comedic spectrum, from the enjoyably stupid ‘Half Baked’ to the awfully stupid ‘Smiley Face’, but ‘Pineapple Express’ is a new kind of stoner comedy… it has a story, action and just enough drama to to take it seriously. Watching the movie, I kind of started to empathize with Dale (Seth Rogen). Dale Denton is a process server, one of those guys who delivers subpoenas ans summons that no one ever wants have pay a visit. He also dates a high school senior (Amanda Heard) and is a recreational pot smoker, one who recreates often… at home, in his car, while driving, in public, at his dealer’s apartment, etc. Saul (James Franco) is Dale’s dealer, perhaps the only person in town stoned on a more regular basis than Dale, and to a far greater extent.

Dale pays Saul a visit to pickup his weed, when Saul offers Dale some of the premo-pot in the world, exclusively available though him and he’s the first to get a hit. Dale instantly falls in love with the chronic called Pineapple Express. Dale visits his next job and decides to light one up before going in, but ends up witnessing a murder while sitting in his car smoking that blunt. In a frantic, red-eyed effort to flee the scene, he causes a commotion, tipping the guilty party off to his presence. Thus, begins the chase in which drug lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole) sends his goons to find the witness. In the process, Saul’s supplier Red (Danny McBride) gets involved and proves awkwardly resilient against the goons’ attempts to physically convince him to cooperate.

‘Pineapple Express’ weaves a wonderfully intricate web of fortune and misfortune, trust and deceit, cleverness and idiocracy, with priceless moments of dialogue and character interaction that will be remembered by fans for years. Dale and Saul, and ultimately Red, form a bond of friendship and loyalty that allows them to survive the many ordeals that they encounter on the run from the bad guys. There are several great “little” moments in the film, one of mine being when Dale takes a flying leap off a second story balcony to attack a thug from behind, Wolverine style. By far, the most outright hilarious scene in the movie is the ending, with Dale, Saul and Red in a diner reminiscing and sealing their friendship. Overall, ‘Pineapple Express’ was not what I had expected… in fact, its better than I had expected and more than just another ridiculous stoner comedy.

(4 out of 5 stars)

Zac:

Seth Rogen and James Franco star in a stoner/buddy/action/comedy that is usually fairly humorous, but drags at the end and maybe over stayed its welcome a bit too long.
Dale (Seth Rogen) is a process server, handing out subpoenas all day while intermittently getting high between stop to stop. Saul (James Franco) is Dale’s dealer of two months who spends his day watching two TV’s and getting high himself. After a recent stop to Saul’s, in which he and Dale had a bit of a bonding experience over his exclusive rights to the very good Pineapple Express weed, Dale is about to serve Ted Jones (Gary Cole) when he witness him murder and Asian man with the assistance of female cop Carol (Rosie Perez). Dale attempts to flee the scene, making a scene himself ramming into the cars around him, tossing his joint out the window and rushing to Saul’s for help. Jones finds the joint and is able to detect that it is Pineapple Express, hence sending his goons to Saul’s to figure out what just happened and to shut up who ever saw him. The odd couple gets bent out of shape on paranoia and flees into the woods as the try and figure out how they can track them with their ridiculous philosophies. The movie carries on from here as a traditional cat and mouse hunt between Jones and his thugs pursuing Saul and Dale, with a smattering or random faces being pulled into the bigger picture as the overall mess grows bigger and bigger over the significance of Dale witnessing the murder.
The film itself is pretty funny over the course of the first 2/3 of the film or so, with a couple of dragging scenes, but nothing that holds the film back. The actors are allowed to create these silly, but real, conversations and we get to kind of just look in on the bonding among these characters. It is when we get to the predictable and clichà ©d comedy “break-up” between the leads that the film starts to drag a bit and almost grinds to a halt during the big finale. The film kind of wants to make fun of conventional turns in a film and action set pieces, but for every convention it lampoons it falls right into another. And the action is silly and funny at moments, but also seems like they were trying to make it really cool other times. The director David Gordon Green and scripter’s Rogen and Evan Goldberg just seem to not be able to really settle on what they want the film to be or find a good balance; the action is pretty much mediocre most of the time outside a couple of good explosions here or there. The film overall is a bold attempt to mix a lot of genre’s and it kind of works, kind of doesn’t, but it is definitely not terrible by any means; and many times it is pretty good.
Luckily, any confusion in what the filmmakers were going for is made up for by the solid actors work in the film. Seth Rogen isn’t playing anything terribly new but we aren’t tired of his shtick yet so he continues to easily entertain. I think he is continuously funny because he doesn’t play dumb, even though he might do dumb things; he also spouts some of the best improv lines one could imagine as well. Gary Cole plays a decent bad guy, selling us on the ridiculousness of the coincidences and convoluted plot that come up, with Rosie Perez being pretty much a non-factor in the film. Bill Hader hasn’t an excellent and hilarious cameo to open the film, and no you aren’t in the wrong theater when it opens. Danny McBride continues to show up in almost every movie and he is pretty funny as the flip flopping drug middle man for Saul, Red. He has a number of good one liners, and the fight in his house is funny and memorable. Craig Robinson also crafts a unique and odd character as one of Jones’ thugs and you really don’t know what is going to come out of his mouth or what he might do next. His partner in the film played by Kevin Corrigan is a weird anomaly though as I don’t really get what he was supposed to be or why Robinson’s character is reasonably mad at him sometimes, odd. Amber Heard also has a couple of brief appearances as Dale’s girlfriend and she is consistently funny whenever she is on screen.
The stand out though is James Franco and he is worth the price of admission alone to see this film. He is just so out there, and nails that stoner/dealer role to a T, that it is just a joy to watch. Almost everything he says is funny and the film will be worth watching again just to get down some of his one liners you might have missed. Great work Franco.
In the end, Pineapple Express is a fun and silly stoner comedy that has some ok action. Go for the comedy and you will be happy as Franco really shines and the movie is never really dull in that department. The end of the film drags on and on for way to long with nothing really happening and could have been a lot better had they trimmed things up through out. I think Pineapple will grow on subsequent viewings like any good comedy should, but I can’t say I am not a little disappointed as they have seem to have squandered a potentially great premise and got mixed results in the end. Pineapple Express is a good film, with a great turn by James Franco.

(3 pineapples out of 5)

  

Charles:

Freaks, Seth Rogen and James Franco, worked together earlier in their career on Judd Apatows “Freaks and Geeks”, and garnered much critical acclaim as well as a devoted cult following. This launched the careers of Franco and Rogen to stardom and now here they are to present us with this kind nug, “Pineapple Express”. Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Last year, when I heard about this film, I googled Seth Rogen to find out about all his upcoming projects in development. After discovering the plot and story of this movie, as sober as I was, I pretty much tipped nearly out of my chair. But I caught myself, so don’t worry. Ok… so, we’ve seen countless stoner buddie flicks from the classic Cheech and Chong to the current Harold and Kumar, but these talented writers, Seth Rogen and (best friend) Evan Goldberg, really got us high on this hit. I mean, its some really good stuff. Check it out dude. I’m buying it when it comes out and keepin’ it in my stash.This stoner comedy starts very quickly, never stopping throughout the whole film with the comedy and suspense. I saw this movie multiple times so I could truly understand all the jokes and catch everything that was going on. The acting in this movie is excellent from these comedic buds. Rogen, in my mind, is one of the funniest cats in this business, and was just hilarious as always but even better in this movie. To my surprise though, was a great performance by James Franco as Saul. He was the big standout in this movie, as Dales (Seth Rogen) herb resource, and was extremely believable as a druggie/dealer. It was kinda scary actually just how good he was. Besides this movie just being a comedy, the action actually kicks into ‘high’ gear throughout the movie, making for a tremendously enjoyable experience.For you smokers- roll your joints, pack your bongs, grab your munchies and cruise by for a sweeeet supply of Pineapple Express! For everyone else interested in a rude, crude comedy along the lines of ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘Superbad’, stop in and put this in your pipe and smoke it, maaaaan.

(5/5 stars)

[rating: 4/5]