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Pineapple Express
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary
Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride |
| MPAA Rated: |
R |
| Released By: |
Columbia Pictures |
| Web Site: |
www.ridetheexpress.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
Only if you want
them to be stoners. |
| Date Movie: |
Only if she can
relate to stoners. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Mostly "Bromances." |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Quite a lot of
shootings are involved. |
| Action: |
And there are a
lot of chases. |
| Laughs: |
If you can relate
to the stoner culture. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The fight scene in
Red's place. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
Too many to quote. |
| Directed By: |
David Gordon Green |
| Produced By: |
Judd Apatow, Shauna Robertson |
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Pineapple Express
A Movie Review |
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There was one night in college where I was ready to take
the plunge - to smoke some pot, maybe rock the gange, or see
if a bong filters out the badness therefore just leaving the
goodness of the wacky weed. But, wouldn’t you know it, that
night the one person I wasn’t really friends with but was
99% sure would have been my 100% friend had I asked him to
light up, was nowhere to be found, and thus my desire to
take up and experience for myself the paranoia and munchies
normally associated with the green herb went away. I would
like to say that "Pineapple Express" has renewed my desire
to see if marijuana could help me chill from a stressful
day, but instead now my self-induced paranoia is just that I
would end up being friends with my dealer, I would witness a
murder, me and my new friend would be on the run from some
inept killers, and suddenly we would find ourselves in the
middle of a drug war between a dork and an Asian Drug Lord.
I suppose I’ll just stick to being high on life, although
that doesn’t always let you shoot some guns, save your
friend, and kill the bad guys. You know what? I don’t want
to be a police officer either.
Enough with my "trying to be creative opening," let’s get
to the movie:
"Pineapple Express" gives us Dale (Seth Rogen) as a
subpoena server, and since his day has a lot of down time,
some costume changes, and just some all around laziness, he
also likes to smoke a joint, or two, or eight, during the
day, to kill some time. He is also dating a high school girl
(thank God she is at least 18 years old), Angie (Amber
Heard), and sure, if he were 35 years old and she were 28,
well, it might not seem that creepy, but he’s 25 and she’s
18, and yup, that’s just creepy, especially as he has to
contend with Angie’s high school dude friends, even creepier
teachers, and meet her parents.
Anyway, Dale has a new pot dealer, Saul (James Franco),
who is really just looking for a friend and has now been
deemed the exclusive supplier of the latest, greatest,
strain of marijuana, Pineapple Express, and since he wants
Dale to be his friend, he sets Dale up with some supply,
only Dale witnesses a murder at the house of the dude who
supplied the dude who supplied Saul with the Pineapple
Express, thus setting up said dude who supplied Saul, Red
(Danny McBride), and Saul, with getting dead if they don’t
rat out Dale.
And in the middle of this all, the murder Dale witnesses
was of an Asian dude, at war with Ted (Gary Cole), who
supplied Red, and now wants Dale dead. So Dale and Saul, in
the middle of pot paranoia and just trying not to be dead,
go on the run trying to save their respective loved ones (in
the case of Dale, well, of course it’s his 18 year old
girlfriend, and in the case of Saul, well, it’s his
grandma), but low and behold, police car chases abound,
there’s a ton of gunfire, "Pineapple Express" becomes more a
movie about friendship more than about marijuana, and unless
I’m mistaken, and if the movie does well enough, there was a
quick grab at some buds that might just set up a sequel.
Look, this is a simply a movie that if you like the
trailer, well, you will probably like the movie, and if you
have ever had to deal with/be friends with/had a dealer who
wanted to be your friend with/ in the realm of pot, you will
understand a lot of what Dale and Saul are going through
during the first 2/3rds of the movie. Then will come the
"over-the-top" escalation of the drug war where you might
want to relive the Tyson-Holyfield fight, you won’t believe
our two stoners could actually get out of their situation
alive, but in the end all of it happens because our two
heroes are dealing with maybe the most inept drug dealers
and corrupt cop-woman in Carol (Rosie Perez), ever.
"Pineapple Express" did make me laugh a lot, but I’m
still torn if I like the dorkiness of the ending gunfight,
and for that I’ve got to be a tad reserved in my rating. As
such I think I’m going to, for now, give "Pineapple Express"
3 ½ Stars out of 5, waiting, in hopeful anticipation, for
the DVD, to maybe push this movie into the realm of one of
the greatest stoner movies of all time.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
