Pineapple Express? I've smoked better
Written: Aug 13 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well, it's funny...
Cons: ...But sometimes predictable and too insular
The Bottom Line: really has smoked better.
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| updateghost's Full Review: Pineapple Express |
Some people out there will legitimately, intellectually love Pineapple Express. It is not a movie that functions on immediate, gut-busting reactions -- actually, many of the slapstick and gross-outs and cheap and predictable. Instead, some of the best elements here are conceptual -- such as the ultra-ridiculous climax, which deserts the film's entertaining realistic moments and makes a blind-folded leap into farce. These concepts will incite some to crack up immediately and long after they leave the theater -- but for others, like myself, it will leave a taste only slightly better than lukewarm.
The idea is slightly comparable to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle -- two stoners in an action movie that they don't belong in -- but this take actually contains a plot. It'd be wrong to spoil much, although if it tantalizes you, Gary Cole stars as an evil drug lord (which is a fairly golden idea). Dean Denton (Seth Rogen) and Saul Silver (James Franco) are our true heroes, the former being a career stoner with a high school girlfriend and the latter holding a job has a neighborhood pot dealer. The movie is funnier when it exposes cliches during a two-on-one battle with another dealer -- instead of people passing out as vases are smashed over their heads, they just shout "Ow!" That's real life, yo.
Rogen is fun as always, but frankly, he's been the same stoned loser in every role he's remembered in -- The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up -- which probably means he doesn't possess superb acting skills. Franco, however, is shockingly good -- his overly melodramatic voice in the Spider-Man series was somewhat unremarkable. He seems destined for his character in Pineapple Express, built to be saying "Dude" and "Yo" for the rest of his life. Whereas I don't know how much longer I can take Rogen's antics, I believe I'll be happy with Franco's for a long time.
Departing from the tactics of his contemporaries, David Gordon Green provides more artistic direction, replete with shaky camera angles and tricky shots reminiscent of Peter Berg. They aren't quite artsy-fartsy enough for you to think, "Damn, this is one artsy-fartsy movie," and that's actually a bit disappointing. Nor can they help the story's third act graduate from "kinda funny" to "I couldn't laugh more if I was stoned." Though it's very enjoyable, Pineapple Express never resonates with that specialness that we all desire in movies.
The Apatow factory might need a new direction. Still, the funniest movies continue to be from the man himself (though I will rank The TV Set as an exception). Although his vehicles have succeeded in providing unlikely stardom for mediocre faces like those of Rogen's and Jonah Hill's, their similar scripts are fostering a bit of an expected air.
Rating: B-
Recommended:
Yes
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updateghost
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