Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I know some days it feels like Ain’t It Apatow News around here, but that’s because they are taking over the world.

You want proof? This test screening review comes in from London. That’s in fucking England, man. Totally different country.

In all seriousness, I am curious about how this one plays overseas. I think great comedy travels, and early word on this one has it pegged as one of the very best of the films from this producing team so far.

Does our London spy agree?

Hi Harry, Moriarty and Quint,

Haven’t written in for a while but caught a few screenings recently so thought I would give you the heads up. I caught a preview of The Pineapple Express here in London last night and thought I would write in and tell you my thoughts. The security was crazy with everybody having to hand in their mobile phones and be metal detected before they were allowed in, I didn’t mind however if it lived up to the trailer I’d seen.
Just to say, I’m a big Apatow fan so I am slightly biased. I loved the 40 year old Virgin, thought Knocked Up was fairly good and loved Superbad. If you liked any of those movies its pretty safe to say that you’ll like Pineapple Express which I would describe as a cross between a stoner/buddy flick with a healthy dose of action thrown in at the end for good measure. I had a blast and most of the crowd there seemed to as well.

As I’m sure most of the people who read this site already know, Pineapple Express refers to super strain of weed rather than some kind of super speed train.

The movie features loads of guys from the movies mentioned above all of whom cracked me up including Apatow’s cop buddy, officer Slater, from Superbad, who plays a completely stoned soldier/test subject/guinea pig when the military are testing this new super-bud on him back in the 60’s during the black and white opening scene.

Pineapple tells the story of Dale Dention (Judd Apatow and his dealer friend Saul, played by James Franco. I was not that impressed by Franco when I saw him in the Spiderman movies or in Flyboys but here he really impresses as the stoned dude with a big heart. He’s really funny and has some great lines. The character that made me laugh the most however was a character named Red (Danny McBride), Franco buddy and guy that supplies him. He gets the best lines throughout the film and whenever he appears something funny comes out of him mouth or gets injured in some way or another.

To cut to the chase, the plot, whilst paper thin, tells of Apatow and Franco going on the run when they witness and get caught up in the murder of a gang member with one of the bosses sending out two incredibly stupid and funny hitmen (one played by the guy who was the boyfriend of the period blood girl in Superbad) to take care of them.

Whilst being chased they get totally greened out on the Pineapple which leads to all kinds of funny sh*t :- getting lost and sleeping in the woods, arrested for selling herb to some school kids, a hilarious car chase (you’ll know the bit from the trailer where Franco puts his foot through the windscreen, its frickin hilarious), an angry girlfriend’s parents and a pot dealing buddy who no matter how many times he gets shot, always seems to be okay.

I’m sure it will do really well when it comes out in the summer and will appeal to the usual crowd who like Apatow’s films. It’s a lot harsher (there are some pretty twisted gunshot wounds) than any of his previous movies and whilst the action is a bit poor towards the end, its not exactly meant to be serious. It’s got some great characters and some good perfomances in it and overall I would recommend it to anybody who likes a good comedy and the odd doobie…….

Got a couple more review of other movies I’ve seen recently which I’ll get written up and over to you soon.

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