Dir. David Gordon Green, USA, 111mins, 2008
Cast: Seth Rogan, James Franco, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Gary Cole, Amber Heard
Review By Matthew Rodgers Judd Apatow scripted/produced/was spotted on set one day, comedies are flooding the multiplex and becoming box-office beasts of worrying familiarity. Affable, schlubby losers as the protagonists, underwritten female characters as the unobtainable love interest, and a geek shall inherit the earth mantra. The winning formula, and this is no secret, is that Drillbit Taylor and Zohan aside, the films remain incredibly funny and adorably sweet natured. Pineapple Express, whilst not as accessible as you might think, is simply Dumb and Dumber, or Stoned and Stonered for the noughties.
Borrowing heavily from the Jim Carrey starrer, Pineapple Express (the name of a new strain of weed) takes that mistaken-identity chase-movie and gives it an action and ad-lib makeover. When perennial pothead, Dale (Rogan, Knocked Up) witnesses a cop (Perez, White Men Can’t Jump eardrum bashing fame) commit murder, he is forced to go on the run with his dealer, Saul (Franco, Spider-Man 3) from the notorious (and completely wasted) druglord, Ted (Cole, Talladega Nights).
David Gordon Green’s movie is as mashed up as its loveable duo, but hits more than it misses; springing from the blocks with a b-movie monochrome flashback it then takes its time to settle into its stride, [very] slowly setting up Dale’s [low]life before lighting up its prize draw (the last drug pun, this review is heading for journalism rehab) in Franco. He hasn’t been this good since Freaks and Geeks, and his rapport with Rogan, employing his usual guffawing schtick, works really well to make this an extremely charming roMANce.
It’s the third act that contains the most problems, switching to balls-to-the-wall action in exchange for laughs, its competently done, but by making our bumbling protagonists gun-toting machismos it removes a lot of their vulnerability. We like these guys because they stumble through life, they’re not bulletproof, so it just doesn’t sit well in a film that has featured a genuinely hilarious slapstick fight scene (ashtray to the head anyone?) 40 minutes earlier.
As a buddy movie it is a contemporary classic, as an action movie it's mildly diverting, and as a comedy it's dictionary definition scattershot, but thanks to Franco’s shambling performance it's worth hopping aboard the Pineapple Express for a couple of hours.
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