Drug Haze: James Franco as Saul Silver and
Seth Rogen as Dale Denton in David Gordon Green's "Pineapple Express", which
opened today. (Photo: Sony Pictures)
THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Pineapple Express"
Drugstore Cow-Buds, Tuning In And Dropping Out,
Way Out
By
Omar P.L. Moore/August
8, 2008
David Gordon Green departs from the serious
and weighty film fare of the recent past (this year's "Snow Angels", 2002's "All The
Real Girls" and 2000's "George Washington") with "Pineapple Express", a wild,
rambunctious action film. While there are a high volume of laughs, the
film is not a comedy -- it's a situation, ala "Reservoir Dogs"-- but not for the
better, as the third act of Mr. Green's film devolves into Quentin Tarantino's other cult
favorite "Pulp Fiction" has its earmarks all over this fruit of fun and frolic,
as do some 1970's and '80s television buddy comedies.
Seth Rogen and a hilarious James Franco buddy up as drug heads in California.
Mr. Rogen is Dale Denton, a process server who gets much pleasure out of his
job, and Mr. Franco's Saul Silver gets much recreation out of his job -- smoking
marijuana and other assorted chronic -- most notably a rare, virtually top
secret drug called Pineapple Express, which Ted Jones, a petty crime lord (a
funny Gary Cole) wants to get his hands on, with the aid of a corrupt Clark
County police officer (Rosie Perez). Dale has a date with Angie (Amber
Heard) but why bother with getting to know Angie and her family when you've got
exclusive access to all the drugs you can smoke at Saul's?? Mr. Green's
film is best when Dale and Saul's unlikely friendship takes center stage, with a
series of accidental occurrences that are meant to be comedic, but they are
downright hilarious at times. In a way this is new for producer Judd
Apatow, whose latest film largely resists the relentless phallic and
scatological humor that has lined a number of his other films, including last
month's "Stepbrothers" and last year's "Walk Hard" and "Superbad".
Mr. Green's concoction is well-brewed (if not always well smoked). For
two-thirds of the time the story about aimless youth in a drug land is
entertaining and funny, with a cheeky back story that opens the film.
However, when the third act gets going, the film begins to fall south, with an
excuse to ratchet up the violence with the emergence of an Asian crime syndicate
which is at war with Mr. Jones. They've definitely got a thing going on,
and for the most part it is violent, in excess of what the film initially
offers.
Mr. Rogen, from Canada, has been steadily emerging as today's Rodney
Dangerfield. Though the characters he plays get some respect, Mr. Rogen's
incarnations are of full of incredulity and outrage. His gruff-sounding
voice isn't all that far off from Mr. Dangerfield's either. Mr. Rogen may
not whoop and holler before large crowds in his films, but he knows how to get
his point across, both in moments where he has physical comedy going for him and
in episodes where he is placed in vulnerable situations. Mr. Franco excels
at playing wildly entertaining character types, and Saul Silver is one of his
best and funniest. As an actor Mr. Franco is agile and able to adapt to
the circumstances of "Pineapple Express", which may be one of the first films of
this new century to make action heroes out of a drug-addled duo. This
aspect of "Pineapple Express" is most memorable and Mr. Green mines the humanity
that he has conveyed so well in his other work into this action film and its
central buddy network, making Mr. Rogen and Mr. Franco two of the summer's most
entertaining film figures.
With: James Remar, Ed Begley, Jr. and Nora Dunn.
"Pineapple Express" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America
for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence. The
film's duration is one hour and 51 minutes. The film opened across the
U.S. and Canada on Wednesday.
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