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Director: David Gordon Green Writers: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole I got a chance to see this roughly three weeks early at some sort of early press screening that a friend just so happened to have tickets to. I prepared to go see it, waited in line for a long time, adhered to the strict no-technology rules, and watched it from the wildly comfortable second-to-front row. Pineapple Express is the sort of movie that is absolutely fantastic if you're stoned, like all the other Apatow-and-co. flicks. Taking a page from Simon Pegg's action-comedy book, the film lampoons stereotypical action movies such as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon with over-the-top deaths, fights, explosions, et cetera ad nauseum. The film thankfully breaks from Pegg tradition by staying a comedy the entire movie - even during the action-packed climax at the headquarters of the antagonist, there's plenty to laugh at between the comedy of seeing a hero like Rogen, the sometimes gruesome deaths, and even another gross-out shout a la Knocked Up. The movie's plot is barebones and simple and essentially every '80s/'90s action plotline.. weed. A stoner witnesses a murder by his dealer's dealer's dealer, from which his very potent and very rare strain of marijuana originated, and he is then tracked down based on the roach he left at the scene and must run along with his dealer from the various people out to get him. The characters are very nearly as spartan with most of the gags being situational as opposed to the more based-in-character comedy of Knocked Up or Walk Hard. The main character's occupation as a process server gives way to a few throwaway gags but the characters are very clearly set into "good" or "bad" categories (with one obligatory double agent) with their occupations being cop, dealer, or process server. This is good in that it's different from the typical Rogen-style story but in many ways the characters are far TOO shallow and what is present often isn't used to the fullest - protagonist Dale Denton's occupation, girlfriend, and dream all are used for throwaway gags and generally never touched on due to the focus being stolen by explosions and death. To be fair, director David Green does a very good job of keeping the action scenes exciting and funny at the same time. I really wish I could see the movie again before I finish this review. Pineapple Express is one of those movies that are so good in some ways and so bad in others that it's tough to get a general feel for its likability. Oftentimes Randall Graves-style outlandish dialogue and motion are used for comedic effect but Green is not a comedy OR action flick director and it really shows. Many jokes are poorly framed and many action scenes are a little TOO over the top. I can't recommend this movie simply based on a penchant for other Apatow/Rogen films simply because of how different it is from anything they've ever done. I hate to sound like a broken record, but a much better way to tell if this is for you is to watch Hot Fuzz and tell how much you liked that. Enjoying the smoking scenes from Knocked Up is a welcome qualifier as well. Overall, I give it a 3/5 based on thinking about it, but a 5/5 based on just how good a time I had watching the flick. You know whether or not you want to see a weed action movie - if you're the former, get out first thing August 6 and catch this very fun movie. TXT BOOTY7 2 47474 fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Jul 22, 2008 |
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Jul 22, 2008 06:37
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:37 |
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Caught this last night also at an advanced screening. I was giving the theatre a lot of poo poo for taking my iPhone but was quickly distracted from that after the movie started. My sole expecations were set based on one scene from the trailer with Seth Rogen flying through the air. This movie exceeded my expecations and once again the Apatow/Rogen team maintains the comedy throne in my eyes. There is so much more in this movie that you don't see in the trailers and it's a fun ride all the way to the end. James Franco is a hilarious stoner. My gripe was that the korean gang was heavily underused and would've been a nice touch to add at least one of the members busting out some kind of martial arts. Craig Robinson is funny as hell. He played the nightclub door guy in Knocked Up and he has a bigger presence in this movie. Pros: Funny movie, great dialogue and overall cast Cons: not quite the laugh so hard you piss your pants comedy which like with superbad Rating this 4/5
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Jul 29, 2008 18:11
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Just got back from the midnight showing. Same caliber as Superbad and will be a huge hit. Apatow and Rogen are the now and future of comedy writers. Franco is awesome and fits perfectly. The whole crowd was dying the entire time. Great mix of quality dialogue, crude jokes, and slapstick humor. 5/5
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Aug 6, 2008 07:29
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I saw a sneak preview last night, and I have to say it was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It was just so real. It felt like if that happened to me, that's how it would play out. Must see for any Superbad lover! 5/5
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Aug 6, 2008 15:34
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I'm a moderate fan of Apatow's other films, and a HUGE fan of superbad, and I just saw this movie today. It may be because I'm not the stoner type, but for some reason I didn't think The Pineapple Express lived up to the high bar set by its predecessors. Rogen and Franco work well together, but I found most of the other characters not especially likable, and some of them forgettable. The dialogue is consistently funny, as one might expect, but too much of the movie relies on slapstick, and there are several "fight" scenes that wear on long enough to become tiresome. In short, Pineapple Express was a fun time, but I won't be going back to see it again any time soon. It has some of the good points of Superbad, but relies far too much on physical humor to try to get laughs. 3/5
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Aug 7, 2008 02:01
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loving hilarious. Not a lot of "shock" humor like Superbad, but a solid comedy. 5/5
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Aug 7, 2008 02:01
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If you like smoking weed and movies about smoking weed then this movie is a must see. 5/5
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Aug 7, 2008 18:18
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I saw it last night with my friends, and yes, we were high, and yes, it was funny. I'm a HUGE fan of Rogen, Franco, Apatow, whatever, almost to the excess. I mean, I have Freaks and Geeks on my computer for fucks sake. I will say that while this movie was funny, and pretty good, I was a bit disappointed. It's a lot different from Knocked Up and Superbad, and I think in a bad way. I thought Franco's character got a little old after awhile and the parts of the movie I liked, AKA Rogen smoking weed and going about his daily, hilarious life, were spread too thin in vein to make action sequences. If you enjoy these characters to the extent that I do, enjoy smoking weed, and aren't tight on money than see this movie. It's not like you're going to see it and not like it. But if you aren't that intent on it, then wait till it comes out on DVD, because it did not live up to the hype. 3.5/5, although in my "elated" state at the time I'd probably bump it up to a 4.5/5
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Aug 7, 2008 21:32
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Pineapple Express is an amazing example of a film coming from opposite places at the same time and working beautifully in the middle. It's made by a zero-budget indie director for $30 million, it's a stoner comedy action movie, it has gut-wrenching, brutal, realistic action and beautiful cinematography, and it all adds up to a strangely unified final product. Put next to all the other Apatow films, two things immediately stand out: the violence, and Danny McBride. To put it simply, I haven't seen an action movie with fights that look like they just loving HURT anywhere near as they did in this since Jet Li in "Unleashed". Bones crunch, blood splatters, and people get shot who aren't supposed to and you don't expect. Meanwhile, the staging of the action is funny in and of itself: an ashtray as an improvised projectile, or a leg through a windshield in the middle of a car chase, make you laugh and wince at the same time. Danny McBride, as Red, comes out of nowhere, but he's is instantly keeping up with, and occasionally topping, Franco and Rogen. I read in an interview that David Gordon Green gave only one line of direction to McBride for his characterization of Red: "Your character has shaved armpits. Figure out why." The reason that McBride came up with, and extrapolated outward from into a startlingly well-defined character, is "Because it makes me more aerodynamic when I fight." He says this while standing in a Kimono, and he will later make more of his asian influences with a strangely poignant yet hilarious monologue about buddhism, reincarnation, and hermit crabs. Rogen plays himself with a different name, as usual, but shows unexpected chops as an action hero, which we got a hint of with that shot of him flying through the air in the trailer. He is not a badass, and he's the last person you'd expect, and that makes it all the more impressive when he tears poo poo up. Franco stumbles blindly through his role, practically sleepwalking much of the time, and that's actually a good thing. His complete inability to take anything seriously when he should, and his tendency to take seriously things that he has only imagined, throw an extra element of perfect chaos into the already confusing situation. Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan play two hitmen. Corrigan's all business, and Robinson likes to stop and smell the roses, or occasionally just dip his hands completely into someone's dinner just to see how recently they left the room. That's all you need to know. Weed, comedy, violence, homoerotic tension between unattractive men. Everything you could possibly want from a Judd Apatow film, even if it's directed by David Gordon Green. 5/5
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Aug 7, 2008 22:20
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It's hard to rate this movie. On one hand you have fundamental film-making concepts being completely ignored, like logical scene segues and realistic behavior. Then on the other you have a ridiculously funny movie. Hilarious mostly because of the over-the-top action scenes and the distance from reality many aspects of the film have. I know it was intended to be this way though--downright goofy and illogical. They succeeded and did so while making me laugh the whole time. Cons: -Opening scene with the veteran cop from Superbad ranks up there with the worst introductory scenes I've ever seen, really. It never made me laugh because Bill Hader had the most transparent emotion as if to say "I'm struggling to be funny in my insignificant role". -The hideout scene was wayyy too long and 10 minutes of that could have been utilized for extra scenes of selling drugs to children or chase shenanigans. Lots of gunshots and pointless fleeing don't exactly build up tension, neither does letting the 4 main baddies be the remaining 4 bad guys after a 20-man massacre. It makes the whole scene culminate to a level of 'phenomenally retarded'. At least we got Rogen carrying out Franco with tube socks and saggy briefs. Brownie points. -The very final scene in the diner. All 3 guys talking at the same time, gut-wrenching sappy gestures toward conflict resolution (HANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TABLE GUYS!! LET'S BE BEST FRIENDS), and a shroud of mystery over almost all character resolution. Not so sure how to interpret all the unrealistic behavior: *Pinpointing a strain of weed based on a used roach's smell? No way in hell, but I dealt with that. *Historically inaccurate depiction of marijuana's prohibition. This pissed me off the most because it's actually very simple and potentially more comedic. *Drug turf war starring the baby boomer Brady Bunch father, a female cop with no leverage, Gary Cole's soft cronies, and the Chinese weed mafia. Happens a lot! *"Unintentional" homoerotics. Sure it can be funny, to a point. Blatant innuendo and dragged out belt-jerking scenes just don't do it for me right now. The 'Pros' are the rest of the film. My cons seem uncomplimentary enough to deduct a point or two but I still give it 4.75, because I can let slide a lot of the directing faux pas on account of the considerably tiny budget. Not only that but a lot of the humor in this film was not reinvented from something we've seen before. Let me know the last time someone said "it smells like God's vagina" 4.75/5 EllisD fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Aug 26, 2008 |
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Aug 26, 2008 06:35
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I just got done watching this on DVD. (Thank you $1 redbox rental) I have to say that there were a lot of lulls where I wasn't laughing or really into the movie. The comedy was a bit terse, and the plot was stretched out like playdough. There was definitely a lot of improv going on, but the result was pretty bland about 60% of the time. I may watch it again, but it's definitely a rent only. 3/5
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Jan 10, 2009 03:49
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