Pineapple Express (2008)

Written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
Directed by David Gordon Green

Every once in a while a film comes along that you tend to identify with. Naturally, for me, this is one of those films. Living in Los Angeles is a strange and wonderful experience, one that cannot be explained in typical terms. This film however, seems to do that, it captures the strange idiosyncrasies of life in Los Angeles and the weird adventures that an average person can come across.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a process server who has to come up with creative ways to serve his clients, since most people that get served really don't want to do so. When a person is served, there is no turning back, if they fail to appear at the courthouse at the specified time and date, the person can be held in contempt of court. However, having no real schedule, no direct boss to report to, and the fact that a process server sometimes has to employ creative tactics to serve certain individuals, makes it the perfect job for a stoner to hold.

And Dale is a stoner, don't be misled. In his middle 20's, Dale is the embodiment of a loser. He is happy at his half-ass job, his girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) is still in high school, and the highlight of Dale's day is getting stoned as he tracks people down to serve them. Early in the film, Dale runs out of weed and travels over to his dealer Saul's (James Franco) house to refresh his supply. Upon arrival, Saul tells Dale he has some of the best shit ever, Pineapple Express, and he's the only one in town that has it. Of course, Dale is skeptical, as this is the typical claim of all drug dealers, and he just wants to get his stash and quickly leave. However, Saul entices him with the Holy Cross joint, which is actually a combination of 3 joints in one, so he stays and gets stoned with Saul. This is where most of the comedy in the movie comes from, the Dale/Saul dynamic, how they are both stoners, but they are so entirely different at the same time. They discuss the pros and cons of each of their jobs, and smoke.

Once Dale leaves he is off to his next assignment, serving a man named Ted Jones (Gary Cole). On the way there, he gets a joint going, and smokes it while he's sitting outside of Ted's house, trying to figure out how to serve him. While doing so, Dale sees Ted shoot a man in the head, in the presence of a female cop (Rosie Perez), which doesn't bode well for Dale. Once he sees the murder, he tries to quickly escape, but in his stoned state he makes an especially noisy getaway, and in the process he tosses half of his unsmoked joint at the window in an effort to get away faster. Ted, hearing the commotion on the street, runs down to see who it was, but Dale is already gone. Ted looks down and sees the still burning joint, picks it up, hits it, and says "Pineapple Express".

So the real adventure begins. Dale hurries back to Saul's house, telling him what happened, and in the process implicating Saul. They grab what they can, including the rest of the Pineapple Express, and try to figure out what to do. In the process, Dale mentions he tossed his joint out the window, and Saul immediately realizes Dale's grave mistake. It turns out Saul really was the only person in town with Pineapple Express, and in a panic, he decides to appeal to his supplier, Red (Danny McBride) to see what Red thinks. Being the jackass that Red is, he tells them that he got the Pineapple Express from....you guessed it, Ted. Throughout the course of the story the crew learns that Ted is a crooked cop, and the top weed supplier in the city.

They take Red's advice and go on the run. After Dale and Saul leave, two of Ted's hitmen (Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson) track Dale and Saul to Red's house, and they rough Red up in order to find out where Dale and Saul are headed. Once he has been thoroughly abused, Red is sick of Ted and his cronies, and he ends up deciding to help Dale and Saul. From here, the film turns into a "guys-on-the-run-from-crooked-cops" movie, and the rest of the plot is about how Dale and Saul will get out of the tight spot they've been put in.

Ever since I saw this film people have been asking me "How is it?" That's a hard question to answer, because it was definitely not the film I expected. However, this is evident with most Apatow-related movies, the trailer actually hides a good portion of the film, and what it's actually about, which is always refreshing, and most of the time it means that you are pleasantly surprised, rather than seeing every important part of a film in the trailer.

The best comparison I can make for this film is Hot Fuzz, even though it is basically the exact opposite. Both films are about two guys on the run from a conspiracy, but in this case the two guys just happen to be the two biggest stoners in cinema history. The action, the pacing, and the style of comedy are all very similar though. The comedy comes in the little moments, the character moments, and not the overall high concept nature of the film. Sure, the concept provides a few laughs, but it's not like Step Brothers where the concept is the comedy. I wouldn't say this disappointed me, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

One pleasant surprise though was Danny McBride. He is a true comedy find, I want to go back and watch Hot Rod now because of him, and I am eagerly anticipating The Foot Fist Way. He has a style of comedy so different and original that you can't help but laugh with and at him at the same time.

Like with most Apatow movies, the pacing is relentless, with something constantly happening, you never have a moment to remember that you're watching a movie, you get so engrossed in the story that you barely notice the nearly 2 hour run time. As I mentioned, the film is primarily a road movie, which means they are constantly moving locales, and this is probably a factor that speeds up the pace of the film.

The action is very over the top and ridiculous, in fact the whole movie is, but the action in particular was very reminiscent of Hot Fuzz. Another factor to this is the fact that the movie is very gory, well, at least for an action/comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Hot Fuzz was about equally as gory, but since they had previously made Shaun of the Dead, it wasn't as big a surprise. However, the gore in this movie is yet another source of comedy, Red get shot so many times it's fucking hilarious.

The acting is pitch perfect, but keep in mind that Seth Rogen wrote basically both roles for himself, and then when he saw James Franco do his stoner character, he knew he was the perfect Saul, and he should take over the lazy Dale. James Franco is literally the best stoner I've ever seen in a film.

The other thing that is conceptually hilarious about the film, at least for me personally, is the fact that it was directed by David Gordon Green, who was previously only known as a harsh dramatist. Check out George Washington, All the Real Girls, or Snow Angels. So it's a high concept comedy that relies on the characters for the actual comedy, but it's shot with the style and visual flair of Martin Scorsese.

I think the biggest problem with this movie is it is too scatter shot for mainstream audiences, much like Hot Fuzz. The people that want another stoner classic on the level of Half Baked with be bothered with the high level of violence, and the people expecting a balls out action movie might be disappointed by the deliberate style of the comedy. I view myself as the prime audience for this move (23 year old pothead who has seen every Apatow-related movie, that loves action and gore) but I didn't walk away jumping for joy. Sure, I thought the movie was pretty damn funny, I liked the way it was shot, and it stars some of my favorite actors, including one of the best stoner roles ever, but somehow as we walked out I still felt like I was missing something. I think the film will have a strong opening weekend because it is so highly anticipated, but at the same time, I'm not sure there will be really strong word of mouth for it, and that's what a movie like this will rely upon. The advertising will get the built in audience, but most Apatow movies have legs because of the very strong word of mouth that spreads beyond the target demographic. For some reason, I just don't see that happening with this film, which is too bad.

All in all, I was pleased, it's always refreshing to see completely original comedy being put out by quality creative people, but in the end I fret for it's ultimate fate. Oh, and just so you know going in, the M.I.A. song "Paper Planes" from the trailer is nowhere to be found in the movie. All of my roommates were stupefied by that fact when we walked out of the theater, but I understand that it happens a lot. I don't think the Smashing Pumpkins song from The Watchmen trailer will be in that movie either. But it's still a kick ass song that fits the trailer perfectly. I recommend this movie, but only after those few words of warning about how different the film is from my expectations.

8.7/10