Written By Steve
Score: 7/10 (Entertaining!)
Bottom Line: Spend Your Money
To-The-Point: Judd Apatow and company (The Frat Pack?) deliver yet another comedy hit, extending their streak of successful comedies that have dominated Hollywood in the past 4 years. Although the humor is more hit-or-miss than Knocked Up, the goofy action scenes more than make up for it with surreal fist fights, car chases, and shoot-outs. With comedians on par with legends such as Bill Murray and Chevy Chase (back in their prime, of course), check out Pineapple Express if you're hungry for laughs...or munchies.
Complete Truth: Let me come clean: I dislike comedies. I grew up watching any horror movie I could get my hands on, establishing a love for all things creepy and gory early on in life. Simply put, I have a macabre sense of humor and find I don't enjoy fart jokes or people getting hit in the nuts by various objects.
Lately, however, I've been enjoying such films as Superbad and Knocked Up because of their clever one-liners, realistic characters, and passionate improv. These films seem to find a perfect balance between story and humor, offering likable characters amid memorable vulgarities. Pineapple Express continues this trend, although some of that distinct wit has been replaced with explosions and bullets.
Seth Rogen and James Franco finally watch 2 Girls 1 Cup.
Beginning with an interesting - yet disappointing - scene revealing how marijuana was deemed illegal, Pineapple Express falters in its early scenes because of a simple lack of jokes. Once James Franco is introduced, Express stumbles to life with its core relationship between a dazed pot dealer and his frantic customer. The remainder of the film relies on the interactions between Franco and Rogen, which happily produces a comical mix of physical humor, snappy comebacks, and the occasional pop culture reference.
As the story kicks into "high" gear when our duo is dragged into a drug war, Express retains its charm but slowly loses its clever dialogue to action scenes that pay homage to 80s buddy flicks. Although I found the entire experience to be entertaining, it's obvious that Express wouldn't have succeeded as just a comedy or just an action movie. Only by combining these slightly above average elements does the film truly make its mark.
Side Note: Seth Rogen wrote Pineapple Express in 2001 while he was busy appearing in Donnie Darko.
Pineapple Express, a Columbia Pictures release, is Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence.
Total running time is 111 minutes.
Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Danny McBride. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Directed by David Gordon Green.
No comments:
Post a Comment