8.09.2008

The Pineapple Express Post

Pineapple Express isn’t for stoners. Sure they will get a kick out of it and it’s a heavily weed-centric in pretty much every way, but the end result is a movie about stoners, not a movie for them. I generally find pro-pot shenanigans to be aimed at a different audience to me and pretty unbearable for able minded viewing, but Express, like previous Seth Rogan entries has managed to win me over despite his apparent need to shove pot into everything he puts on the screen.

Like the recent Step Brothers, ‘Express is extremely uneven and suffers from oddly driven pacing issues. However unlike Ferrell’s latest attempt the movie succeeds in reaching the right levels of humorous, outrageous and entertaining. Taking notes from its predecessor SuperBad, Express’s characters are fleshed out enough to be endearing and charmingly buffoon-ed (that’s a word now), and their interactions with each other brims with the ‘why is this funny enough to make me laugh this much?’-lines. James Franco’s Sean Penn-inspired drug dealer, Saul meshes perfectly with Rogan’s gruff half-whit Dale for some believably hilarious back-and-forths that keep things real despite the outrageous circumstances the two get themselves into. Danny McBride’s Red is priceless. You never know want is going to poor out of his mouth, but revel in the fact that you know it will have you in stitches. Unfortunately all the character interactions and relationship build up is lost with a terrible final act that is appalling by most standards. People where walking out of the theater with only 15-minutes left to go. That tells me something.

All-in-all Pineapple Express is its own brand of stupid. It’s too across the board to fit into a traditional comedy category and as such will rub people expecting certain elements the wrong way. The final scene in which our ‘heroes’ reminisce about their antics will pretty much define your opinion of the film for you. If you don’t crack as smile as they recount their adventure then unfortunately the movie wasn’t for you. I was laughing, so I think I’m sold. Though I have to say this movie could have been absolutely brilliant, and seems to be content to settle with just ‘pretty-good’.

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