REVIEW: ‘Pineapple Express,’ disappointing but fun
“The Pineapple Express” is affable, consistently funny and boasts one of the best performances I’ve seen this year.
So why do I feel so let down by this movie?
I think I was expecting a classic and what I got was a pretty good comedy. I laughed, but not a lot.
And why shouldn’t I have wanted something more from a movie written by “Superbad” scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, directed by one of my favorite fillmakers (David Gordon Green) and starring a few of the funniest people in Hollywood?
The film’s got a lot of heart, but this is my biggest disappoint of 2008 so far.
‘Express’ stars Rogen and James Franco as a couple of stoners who become the targets of a vicious drug dealer (Gary Cole, “Office Space’s” Lumberg) after Rogen witnesses a murder. The two go on the lam, smoking pot and getting into misadventures, while a few hitmen are on their trail all the while.
The premise doesn’t really matter. It’s mostly a Maguffin. The point is the chemistry between Rogen and Franco and the pot-induced shenanigans. And the chemistry between the leads works. But the pot-induced shenanigans only work some of the time.
I guess you can’t expect much focus from a stoner movie, that would almost negate its very existence.
But some of the segments just stretched on way too long. I think Apatow-produced movies can feel a little too long and improvey anyways. But director Green’s trademark is slow, winding, ruminative scenes, and a lot of the gags feel about a minute too much.
And the action scenes, though kind-of funny, become redundant pretty quick.
That’s not to say that some moments aren’t dead-on.
Franco and Rogen’s romantic little jaunt through the woods, in which they try to get a caterpillar high is perfect. And when the duo sells a bunch of pot to middle-schoolers is refreshingly offensive.
Franco’s the main reason to see this movie. His dirty hippie pot dealer is the best thing the actor’s ever done, and I hope he sticks with comedy for a while. It’s so much better for his career than, say, “Fly boys.”
Also, Green regular Danny McBride, as a drug middle man who can’t stop getting shot, is hilarious.
A few key moments, Franco and McBride point to what could have been our era’s definitive “Bro-mance,” but too much of the rest falls flat.
Maybe watching it high would have helped.
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
Sam added these pithy words on Aug 23 08 at 2:06 amBasically put my sentiments into words. I was expecting so much more, as Apatow and Rogen have been responsible for a disturbingly large proportion of my favourite movies ever - in addition to my own status as an ex-stoner - for some reason, the film just fell a little flat. I really, really hope it doesn’t denote the beginning of the duo’s fall from grace, but we shall see…