Photo: Universal Pictures
Pineapple Express is a little bit of good mixed with a whole lot of decent. Despite the film’s rather enjoyable finale there are too many dull moments building up to it. Seth Rogen’s star is slowly dwindling as he is increasingly proving to be a one trick pony, but what really let me down here was James Franco. After his Funny or Die series of “Acting with James Franco” videos maybe I was expecting a little too much, but those videos made me laugh far more than anything Franco did here.
The film is billed as a raunchy stoner comedy, but in all actuality, while weed may be the driving force behind the plot there isn’t a whole lot of weed smoking going on here. Franco plays Saul, a resident drug dealer specializing in marijuana and Dale (Seth Rogen) is just another one of his buyers. When Dale buys a strain of weed so rare only Saul is selling it he never realizes just how much trouble it will get him in.
Throughout the early moments of the film we see Dale dressing in a variety of costumes as he carries out his job serving folks subpoenas, divorce papers and other varieties of unwanted legal documents. It is an early source for comedy and it is used wisely and sparingly. His final drop for the night is with a man named Ted (Gary Cole) who ironically turns out to be Saul’s supplier.So when Dale is the only witness to a murder in Ted’s living room involving a crooked cop, Ted and brains splattered all over the window he forgets his delivery and high-tails it out of there. In his haste to leave the scene he is seen and his abandoned roach becomes a link back to Saul as Ted recognizes the strain he sold Saul, and Saul alone. Our boys are on the run and our film has a plot.
From this point on out we find Dale and Saul avoiding the law, ducking the criminals and meeting a variety of social misfits, but none of them are better than Red played by Danny McBride. I was harsh on McBride’s earlier release this year Foot Fist Way, but he redeems himself both with Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder, which releases only a week later. His foul mouth and hick accent are the obvious sources of comedy, but his character’s passion for survival and the ultimate role he plays in the film is what holds this picture together. Without Red, Pineapple Express would have been a big dull dud.
Taking producer and story credit roles is Judd Apatow, a man that after 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up could do no wrong. Then after he produced Superbad it seemed there was no failing. Raunchy humor seemed to be the big appeal, but dick and fart jokes are starting to wear on audiences just as did torture porn… and quickly.
Directing the feature is David Gordon Green who has never really found any kind of real success as his two most recent films Snow Angels and Undertow barely cracked the $500,000 mark combined despite having names such as Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Stewart and Jamie Bell in the casts. Pineapple Express will certainly raise his profile, but to deliver a product like this with the seemingly golden talent involved is a bit of a disappointment.
People will enjoy this film, it isn’t a movie anyone should really walk out of disappointed. The finale pretty much guarantees you should walk away happy as it is easily the best part of the production, but that doesn’t mean its early faults should be overlooked. This film had a rather big build up that began last year, which guarantees audience attendance, but it will be interesting to see if they stick around and hoist it any higher than the actual status of mediocrity it is. Deciding between a C+ and a B- was difficult, but I had to go with my gut even though I wanted to give it much more praise.
C+
