REVIEW: Pineapple Express
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
By: Lee Rice
Ah, the stoner comedy. Let’s face it, there’s something inherently watchable about a couple of guys blundering their way through comedic situations while baked out of their minds. Sometimes it works, sometimes, it winds up being “Harold & Kumar.” Speaking of “Harold & Kumar,” that’s where I first saw the trailer for “Pineapple Express.” It’s kind of ironic that one of the worst stoner comedies of all time had the trailer for one of the better ones.
The basic story is this- Dale Denton (played by Seth Rogan) is a process server who witnesses a murder while trying to deliver a subpoena. He and his drug dealer, played by James Franco, decide to go on the run from the killers while smoking large quantities of “Pineapple Express,” the breed of weed that gives this movie its title.
I’ve seen stoner comedies, buddy movies, and chase movies before, but this one really stands on its own two feet thanks to several clever and inventive sequences that manage to simultaneously blend elements of all three kinds of movies. Often, when people try to blend different kinds of movies, the result is an uneven mishmash that sometimes feels like one kind of film, and other times feels like something completely different. This time, though, the elements are all skillfully mixed in a way that seems natural and flows well.
What makes this movie so entertaining are the performances of Seth Rogan and James Franco. Lately, Rogan has become something of a rising star in Hollywood, finding his way into several high-end productions, such as the recent “Knocked Up.” He’s nowhere near good enough to get any kind of award for this, but the way he and Franco seem to be inept without pushing the envelope rings true. Comedies, especially stoner comedies, have a tendency to go way overboard, creating situations, dialogue, and action that are so over the top that even the strongest willful suspension of disbelief breaks down, leaving the viewer to roll their eyes at the insanity of it all. Need I mention “H&K’s” ‘riding the cheetah’ sequence? Here, everything is played realistically. I could genuinely believe that Rogan and Franco were a couple of addled stoners trying their best to evade a corrupt police force with the six brain cells that they had left between them.
The only real dose of the surreal comes from Danny R. McBride, another up and coming comedy actor who starred in this summers “Foot-Fist Way.” Seriously, the man gets shot so many times, I wasn’t sure whether he was going to bleed to death or die of lead poisoning first. All the same, the scenes with him are extremely entertaining, in a strange “Monty Python’s Black Knight” sort of way.
One more note on McBride’s performance is that I kept thinking that “Hot Fuzz’s” Nick Frost would have been a better choice for the same role, but maybe that’s just residual loathing from “Foot-Fist” working its way out of my system.
Although it is clever and fun, there are a few pacing issues, mostly after Dale witnesses the murder. For a long time after that, things seem to move at a crawl, and I can’t help but think that sequence either needed to be deleted, or that it needed some serious spicing up to help keep people’s interest. After that, things even out and it’s a lot easier to enjoy the ride, even if there are one or two plot threads that never really pay off.
On the whole, “Pineapple Express” is a good time, and if you have the money, it’s a great movie to enjoy with a group of friends.
Final Verdict 4/5
