PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
Rated R
Four stars out of five
Pineapple Express earned a pretty bad wrap from movie critics for its theatrical release. Brought to you by the guys who made Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this purple haze inducing stoner-action-comedy may have been too hot for box offices. Get it? Good. Although the R rated flick may not be for everyone, due to an overabundance of gore and drug related hilarity, it’s a safe bet that if you split your sides laughing during movies like 40-Year-Old-Virgin, and Knocked Up, you’ll be howling from Seth Rogan and James Franco’s portrayal of a pothead and his dealer marked for dead and caught in the middle of a drug war between crime lords.
The movie is thick with smoke throughout as no doubt Rogen and Franco fully submersed themselves into character. Either that or they are incredibly convincing potheads. Not to be mistaken, this movie isn’t just about drugs and laughs, albeit there is plenty of both, this is an action movie taken to a new level. Long gone are the days of jacked up Stallones and Schwarzeneggers (yeah I spelled that right first try) Pineapple Express introduces a beady-eyed, perma-smiling Franco and a curly-haired, portly Rogen as machine gun-toting vigilantes out to take down the crime lord who put out a hit on them.
After a hilarious military marijuana testing scene set in the 1930s explaining the reason for pot being illegal comes to a close we’re introduced to Rogen as Dale, a summons server, who between puffs adds a unique flair to delivering subpoena’s while carrying on a wildly inappropriate relationship with a high school girl desperately trying to get him to meet her parents, which for obvious reasons he tries to avoid. Fueled by his taste for toking, Dale is forced into becoming friends with his dry-eyed, space-case drug dealer Saul, played by Franco. Saul who spends his days creating the ultimate reefers, watching the 1980s comedy 227, and complaining about lingering buyers in his apartment grows attached to his BFFF (best effing friends forever) Dale, and has a hard time letting go when Dale insistently tries not to linger any longer than it takes to get his stash and leave.
When Dale mentally prepares himself to deliver another subpoena by sparking up a joint outside his target home he witnesses a female cop (Rosie Perez) and drug lord Ted (Gary Cole) filling an Asian rival full of lead inside Ted’s home. As Dale attempts to make a hasty get away, his motor skills aren’t quite up to speed and he continually runs into the police cruiser parked behind him and the car in front of him. After being pursued down the street, Ted noticed the roach left behind by Dale and immediately recognizes it as his own supply of Pineapple Express. The hit is out and the fun begins for everyone involved.
While this movie takes several things to the extreme, certain elements have their foundation in reality -- a reluctant friendship between client and dealer, a 30-something-year-old man realizing his shortcomings and immaturity while crying for his high school girlfriend to take him back, and two people with aspirations of becoming something more than what marijuana has lethargically led them to be.
All told, I give this movie four out of five stars for its insanely funny, action packed plot and hilariously, perfectly-played main roles by Rogen and Franco. A definite must see if you’re up for a lot of drug-related laughs, random acts of violence, and more explosions than you can shake a stick at.
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