Pineapple Express
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Amber Heard, Danny McBride, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Craig Robinson, Kevin Corrigan
Directed By: David Gordon Green
Written By: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Released: 2008
Grade: B+

Pineapple Express is a stoner comedy given to us by the Apatow team and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who gave us the hilarious and very fun Superbad about this time last summer. The stoner character that Rogen gives us is very similar to the character he played in Knocked Up. Interestingly enough, Pineapple Express manages to still bring new things to the table and gives us a completely different tone unlike any other Apatow film. It is really a crime and action stoner comedy. The comedy seems to make the action seem more bizarre and the action highlights that the comedy is really the only medicine in a situation this messed up. at times it is more one than the other, but in many ways these different aspects highlight the other.

Dale Denton (Rogen) is in his mid-twenties and is dating Angie (Heard), a senior in high school. For a living Dale tells people that they are sued, but aside from that smoking is one of the highlights for him. After promising to meet Angie’s parents, he decides it’s time to get a new supply of weed. Dale gives his drug dealer, Saul (Franco) a visit and he gives him what he claims to be an exclusive brand of weed that is a top of the line product called pineapple express. Right after he buys this, he accidentally witnesses a murder. The murderers, one of which is a female cop (Perez), notice that someone saw what they have done. From that point on they are out to find whoever this witness is and kill him. Dale manages to escape just before they catch him. Unfortunately, he left an important clue behind: the pineapple express. Red (McBride), the middle man drug supplier between the murderer/drug king, Ted (Cole) and the drug supplier, Saul is the only person who had a supply of pineapple express. Saul is the only one Red gave it to and Dale is the only customer Saul sold it to. It doesn’t take long for Ted and his boys, Budlofsky (Corrigan) and Matheson (Robinson) to figure out Dale Denton is the one they are after especially after they get to Red and threaten him with his life.

Dale goes back to Saul’s apartment panicked and scared for his life. He realizes that there is no safe place for them to stay. Saul and his apartment will soon be broken in to by them and they can’t even go to a hotel since their credit cards or names could be traced. What is even worse is they have no real means of protection. They can’t go to the police since the police, or at least one police officer is out to kill them. Dale and Saul spend the night in the woods in fear of going anywhere else. After Dale goes to see Angie and tell her that she could be in danger too, her and her family have to go to a hotel under a fake name. Meanwhile, Ted assumes that Dale was hired by the Asians who him and his gang are currently having a drug war with and are using him as revenge for killing one of them. It is clear Ted is stopping at nothing to kill both Saul and Dale himself with great pleasure.

The cast does wonders for the comedy that we are given. Seth Rogen plays the lazy pothead well, but luckily, he is given more of a personality besides that, offering the movie a lot of comic relief. He worked wonderfully with James Franco and it was really great to see them work together, becoming reminiscent to their days of Freaks and Geeks. James Franco was really the stand out in the movie in his return to comedy. He hits every comedic mark perfectly and makes his character to be very goofy and out there in a very casual way. Even more surprisingly is just how caring, trusting, and loving he is, clearly not playing the typical drug dealer. Franco has hit these comedic marks before, but coming back to it now after a long line of drama and action concentrated films, really proves himself as an actor. He still has the ability to deliver a great performance in just about any genre. Danny McBride did very well giving us a shady character at times and others times a more decent one, either way he had great presence and was able to stir things up a bit. It was great seeing Craig Robinson (The Office) here. Both Kevin Corrigan and him played the bad guy role very well and their need to appear tough and in control was one of the most comical things about their performances. Gary Cole did pretty well as Ted, he did what the script called for even if it wasn’t the best performance given. This is actually the first film I have seen Amber Heard in that she actually did well with. In her other movies she comes off seeming somewhat annoying and very fake, making it hard to believe her as a character or to care at all. This was a great change of pace. She was at least somewhat likeable and realistic and added to the story line of her and Rogen’s crazy relationship. There is even a short cameo with the co-writer of the script, Evan Goldberg, at the beginning of the film.

Pineapple Express didn’t have as many laughs as you might expect particularly in comparison to other Apatow and Rogen/Goldberg films that have practically non-stop laughs throughout. This is partially because it had other concentrations in the story line aside from the comedy. The action threat of murder adds some tension to it at times, giving it a slightly different tone. When the laughs are there though they bring out so much energy and more often than not in a very low key way that compliments the film wonderfully. Most of the comedy comes from the fact that Saul and Dale are so over their heads and that they only got in to this position from dumb luck of Dale being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The ploys to attempt to get out of this insane situation they are in are quite funny. One of the funniest moments in the film is when we see Saul, Dale, and Red all clearly in desperate need of medical condition, but are just happy claiming their new found friendship sitting down together eating breakfast. At this point Red has been shot a minimum of 3 times in the past 24 hours, Dale has half of his ear cut off, and Saul has been stabbed, was recently knocked unconscious and most likely inhaled some things that could be damaging his lungs. Yet, this is such a small issue to them for some reason and being ‘best friends forever’ is the bigger issue. It is this quirky set of mind and the extremeness of the situation that we are given that makes this film, and especially the main characters so strangely loveable.