Piña Express

No more James Franco and Seth Rogen... Deeply saddened by the departure.

This movie is actually a well written movie that is original and uniquely funny. It's one of those movies you can watch throughout time and it won't get old.

David Gordon Green has proven his ability to direct an array of films in different genres such as drama, horror and comedy. The latter applies here. Green helms an exceptional comedy. It certainly helps to have Rogen and Goldberg pen the screenplay. This film has excellent direction, screenplay, cinematography, special effects, soundtrack and acting. I don't recall hearing Eddy Grant's, "Electric Avenue" being played on the radio as much as it did in the early 80's after this film was released. This film has a plethora of comedic artists as cast members who all deliver splendid performances. In particular Rogen, Franco, Robinson, Heard, Cole, Hader, McBride and Corrigan stand out. As a matter of fact the entire cast is spot on in their timing, delivery and portrayals. The plot revolves around a stoner process servicer, Dale and his weed dealing stoner best friend, Saul. Dale has to serve papers to Saul's dealer and witnesses the dealer murder his competitor. Dale leaves behind evidence that the dealer immediately recognizes as Pineapple Express. This ignites Dale and Saul running for their lives while being pursued by assassins and corrupt police. The plot is hysterical, violent, riotous, action packed, boisterous, vivacious and has a rib-tickling ending. There are many hilarious scenes in this film. Some of the scenes are when underground military secret testing on marijuana with Private Miller takes place; when Saul explains the evolution of Pineapple Express and the engineering of the cross-joint; the fight at Red's apartment; Saul's chase with the police in hot pursuit; the bombastic fully loaded explosive showdown and the breakfast at the diner. There are also many side-splitting quotes in the film. To this day you'll hear fans of the film quote Dale saying, "You've been served" or General Bratt screaming, "We have a final decision on Item 9. ILLEGAL!". The film is like an embodiment of the peaceful counterculture meets the violent underworld. This is a loveable, memorable and sublime comedy that is a treat to view stoned or not.

I laughed more in this movie than in any other of its ilk. Mostly thanks to James Franco. Yes, the James Dean Franco. His comedic timing is startling and his sympathy is all consuming. I think the secret is that we can (Franco allows us) see the human being behind this irresistible caricature. I was totally taken by the strange kind of innocence he exudes. We sense a loyal buddy who is capable of extraordinary generosity. His smile is already an iconic movie landmark. Seth Rogen is also very funny but you can guess that this is actually his character. Nothing wrong with that but James Franco's range is infinite. David Gordon Green makes his "commercial debut" very successfully. The showdown at the end takes a bit too long but all in all this movie is throughly worth it.

Pineapple Express (2008)

*** (out of 4)

A pothead (Seth Rogan) and his dimwitted dealer (James Franco) hit the road after witnessing a cop (Rosie Perez) murder a man. Pretty soon the two are trying to get away from the cop as well as two drug lords in the middle of a war. As far as pot comedies goes this one here is nearly the best the small genre has to offer. I'm sure Cheech and Chong would give this thing two bongs up as it does contain plenty of laughs but I couldn't help but feel it had the same shortcomings as other Judd Apatow movies. That one issue with this film, as well as the others, is that it runs too long for its own good. Clocking in a nearly two-hours I couldn't help but feel that the film could have lost thirty-minutes and not much would have been missed. This is especially true during the ending shoot out, which just keeps going and going. Outside of that issue this film contains some great big laughs with most of them coming in the form of pot jokes and stuff dealing with stoners. Seth Rogan turns in another winning performance as he gains plenty of laughs from his older guy. James Franco is the real jewel in the film as he's dead-on perfect as the drug dealing loser who just sits around his house getting high, selling pot and watching reruns on television. Franco gets the look down just right but his facial gestures and voice tone perfectly capture that pot head many of us have met in our lives. I thought Perez was pretty much wasted in a thankless role that didn't offer her too much to do. Ed Begley, Jr. has a funny bit as Rogan's girlfriend's father. The screenplay really doesn't offer us any jokes we haven't seen countless times before and in many ways there's not an original idea here but that doesn't really matter because the performances are what makes the movie funny.