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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.

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.

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.

A good stoner comedy, as stupid as you might expect, but not really Rogen's funniest work. The standout is Franco, who plays the lovable idiot perfectly, his stupid innocence providing the best moments of the film. The rest of the characters are okay, Rogen plays his regular character, with all the same actors from that usual scene. Some parts are really funny, like the car chase, but at other points interest can drop. It's a good stoner action comedy, not much more.

There's no doubt about it, Pineapple Express is a relentlessly funny stoner movie, start to finish with little in the way of compromise; telling the story of two stoners, who end up entangled within a drug conspiracy plot that threatens their lives while smoking plenty of pot along the way, this year's latest instalment to the genre is the finest example of dumb -but well delivered- comedy yet. One discrepancy against it's classification as a stoner comedy however lies in that even if you're not high yourself; even if you've never even been high in your life, there's still lots of fun to be had here as the jokes are broad enough in their design to apply to any ridiculous situation. So while the plant obviously makes a starring role here, the focus is not primarily on it, and the movie is better off as a result.

So far this year we have been treated to an unusually high dosage of stoner comedies, with Pineapple Express being a late third behind the too-dumb-for-it's-own-good Strange Wilderness and the dumb-but-fun Harold & Kumar. However, despite coming in late to the game, the old expression of "saving the best 'till last" seems applicable here. Where previous instalments from this year combined the dumb with surreal through incoherent situations obviously dreamt up from people who were under the influence at the time, Pineapple Express feels silly, but not the extent where the entire feature boils down to caricature comedy. Here the writers take two characters, start them off one place and take them on an adventure not just through crime, car-chases, comical fight scenes and little personal squabbles, but through themselves. It's a combination which could have had a disastrously polarising effect, but the writers get it spot on here.

Main characters Dale Denton (Seth Rogan) and Saul Silver (James Franco) may have alliterative names akin to comic book heroes, but they're certainly not of that kind. Instead, they deal with drugs; Saul is Dale's supplier, and as much as Saul would like to think of Dale as a buddy, Dale wants nothing else to do with him outside of the service he provides. However, after Dale witnesses a murder involving some drug-dealer crimelords, the two are forced to embark on a journey that will have them at odds with each other whether they like it or not. What results of this is a story of friendship, and while the unlikely premise of these guys not exactly getting along does seem a bit shifty, the chemistry between Rogan and Franco is superb enough to allow their characters plenty of growing. To be sure, this isn't a hallmark drama, there are no grandeur statements and no tears are provoked from director David Gordon Green but that's what makes it lovable; it's a story about two regular guys, who get into crazy shenanigans, smoke weed and crack some jokes. It's not enlightening per se, but it's entertaining, and down to earth.

This is where Pineapple Express begins to take the lead in front of its predecessors, as it actually attempts to tell a compelling story with an undoubtedly overblown amount of action, but with grounded drama to bear the weight of its fabrications. Through this fusion of solid characterisation with a ridiculous but conceivable action-packed plot, the film succeeds in creating an engagingly entertaining experience that doesn't just provide excitement and memorable characters, but also manages to tickle the funny bone just as frequently.

Coming from the three guys who last year blessed the screen with the hilarious Superbad, Pineapple Express is a riot start to finish, combining lots of blunt dialogue with slapstick and farce to great effect in ways which made the aforementioned creation as funny as it was. It has to be said that this time around, the pacing isn't quite as tight, and the script's insistence on some scenes' ability to sustain laughter is a little off, and this in turn leads to the movie's only real technical fault. In such moments, jokes will be drawn out for long stretches of time, losing momentum, yet thankfully such scenes are far and few between, and with the pace heightening the more film reaches the conclusion; the frequency sharply decreases with time. Nevertheless, if you don't mind profane dialogue, blunt jokes and plenty of passive violence used mainly for comic effect, then Pineapple Express should please any desire for laughter that you may have.

And that's all it basically comes down to, but what else were you expecting? As a movie, Pineaple Express is an entertaining and at times sweet take on friendship based around two very down to earth characters that most people should be able to relate to in some way or another. As a duo, Rogan and Franco are extremely well matched, with the interplay between the two coming off as naturally comical and aptly delivered to the point of satisfying the movie's biggest pulling point and focus. With some great action scenes tinged with plenty of comedy, all revolving around some memorable characters portrayed by enthusiastic, suitably cast performers who end up within a plot which is admittedly hammy, but fun all the same; Pineapple Express is good for many things, but the thing that it does best is in making you laugh, and it does so with enough frequency to make this one of this year's greater comedies.

• Written by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)