Pineapple Express is a weird movie, to say the very least. It’s about five different movies rolled into one. Seth Rogen, from Knocked Up, plays the main character, Dale Denton, a thoroughly lazy process server who bides his days by spending time with his high-school aged girlfriend. James Franco, from Spiderman plays Dale’s contraband dealer, Saul Silver. I won’t spend much time describing the plot, considering that there isn’t much of one.
Dale witnesses a mob murder, committed by rival illicit goods dealer Ted Jones (Gary Cole, from Office Space). Him and his girlfriend, a corrupt cop, give chase to Saul and Dale. For most of the first half of the movie, Saul and Dale talk about nothing related to the plot. In the first half hour of the film, most of the dialogue is just filler. It’s hilariously funny, and often very filthy, but it’s only there to make the movie seemingly longer. Once the plot gets started, the movie becomes more serious.
Judd Apatow, director of Knocked Up, and producer of this movie, always manages to make the same movie differently. His movies are usually about realizing the value of friendship, and the message always seems a little forced. Amidst all the profanity, blood, and car chases, there are some nice character moments between the two leads regarding their relationship, and how the situation makes them want to reevaluate their lives. More so than in his other movies, it’s tedious here. In Knocked Up, the message was so understated and oddly charming that it actually warmed one’s heart.. But watching Pineapple Express, I had an impatient feeling. I wanted the sentimental moments to be over, and for the movie to get back to being funny.
The humor in the movie is not for the faint of heart. As with nearly every movie starring, or involving, Seth Rogen, four letter words are on the tips of everyone’s tongues. Most of the humor is attributed to Danny McBride, who plays a friend of Saul’s who is selling them out to Ted. McBride, who has been in nearly nothing else of memory, except Tropic Thunder, is hilarious in his role. Aside from having a predictable running joke (he gets shot at least ten times, stabbed, blown up, and beaten), he is one of the funniest characters in the movie.
When the movie works its way around to the last forty minutes, it turns into constant action. The final fight scene, of which lasted at least twenty minutes, was too serious to be entertaining, too long to keep my interest, and featured a few too many double crosses that made little sense and seemed to have no motivation. The Asian mafia shows up during this, and that didn’t suit the movie well. It didn’t take anything away, but it didn’t add anything, either. David Gordon Green, the director, stages the action sequences creatively, keeping it simple enough so that you understand who is doing what to whom, but making it exciting enough to be enjoyable. In the last sequence, while he is obviously poking fun at excessive action movie scenes, the parody never goes all the way. It becomes what it’s making fun of. While parody is usually exaggerated, the action in the climax never reaches the level of where it gives you an adrenaline high watching it. The showdown between Dale and Ted is one of the best things about the movie. It’s much more brutal than anything seen in a real action movie. When someone gets punched in the face, instead of flying back and bouncing off the wall, they get their nose broken.
Pineapple Express is at times a very funny movie. At others, it’s boring and lacks enough excitement to really make the audience interested. Green’s last movie was about a mother dealing with the abduction of her child, only to find that she drowned in the lake behind their house, and then gets killed by her husband. Pineapple Express shows that he can make something other than a Midwest-set tale of depression. In terms of mixing genres, the movie was great. In terms of keeping my interest, it wasn’t so good. It’s the kind of movie that has its good parts, and then takes a while to get to the next one.
Pineapple Express is 1 hour and 53 minutes long, and is rated R The movie contains over 150 uses of one particular four letter word, and at least 200 other profanities, scenes of drug use, references to adult situations, and occasionally very bloody violence.
3 ½ out of 5 stars.