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Beaks Exhales His Meandering Thoughts On PINEAPPLE EXPRESS...
SPOILER ALERT !!
"You don't have to be an insider to see the humor in dopers' single-minded, never-ending quest for great grass." - Pauline Kael on UP IN SMOKE, 1978
Seriously. The Pauline Kael wrote that. Don't believe me? Here's a link. I really hope this was tethered to her pan of AUTUMN SONATA.
In any event, if the finickiest critic that ever critiqued was capable of chortling her way past UP IN SMOKE's many technical deficiencies (there's a reason legendary record producer Lou Adler only directed two films before settling down to become "The White-Haired Dude Who Sits Next to Jack Nicholson at Lakers Games"), then I think she would've been an easy mark for David Gordon Green's PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, which, if nothing else, has the distinction of being the most competently-shot stoner comedy in the history of film. Take that, um, HALF BAKED!
Whether Kael would've stuck with the film as it transitions from amiable Cheech & Chong homage to 1980s action-comedy goof is hard to call; I don't believe we ever got her thoughts on ARMED AND DANGEROUS (and we are poorer for that). But if you laughed your ass off at Steve Railsback plowing through stopped traffic in his semi truck because... he was running over a lot of cars for the fuck of it, then the raucous, giddily violent final third of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS should be a one-way ticket to delirium regardless of what you imbibed prior to (or during) the film.
Though Green's film is much more entertaining than the Reagan-era crap it's emulating, it's still powered by the kind of merely functional plotting that's been the hallmark of all-star comedy showcases since The Marx Brothers ran riot on Broadway. Basically, it's a wrong-place, wrong-time yarn in which Seth Rogen's cheerfully unambitious process server, Dale Denton, gets forced on the lam after he witnesses a murder while parked outside the swanky, 70s-style abode of ruthless drug trafficker Ted Jones (Gary Cole). Though Dale flees before Ted and his crooked cop sidekick/lover Carol (Rosie Perez) can get a visual ID, he leaves behind a still-smoldering joint packed with a very rare strain of weed that the crimelord just happens to be moving. Since Dale's perpetually baked dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), is one of the few guys in town who's been supplied with "Pineapple Express", they're both sent scurrying. While it may be a stretch for Dale to piece together that the roach he abandoned at the scene of the crime will be the linkage that sends Ted's squabbling hit men (Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson) to Saul's apartment, the pleasure of watching Rogen play easily flustered straight man to Franco's sensitive-and-childlike clown more than excuses the contrivance. Once again, the film's primary reason for being is the assembled talent, not the story. (My apologies if you enjoy CADDYSHACK for the hardscrabble hero's journey of Danny Noonan.)
There is a notion early on that Rogen as a scumbag working stiff could be a great jumping-off point for some unflattering character-based comedy, but after an amusing, "Electric Avenue" scored opening credit sequence (which finds Rogen amiably ruining folks' days with the gift of subpoena), we quickly realize that Dale is is just another likable schlub. Sure, it's a little discomfitting to watch him make out with his high school girlfriend (as an even schlubbier covetous Joe Lo Truglio ogles and scolds), but one look at Amber Heard mitigates the ick factor. Dale's bad judgment could be a helluva lot uglier. (If they really wanted to challenge the audience's goodwill, they would've cast a bookish, Elisabeth Moss type.)
But this isn't Rogen's film to dominate, and he seems to be entirely comfortable with that. The real star of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is Franco, whose considerable gifts have been wasted on pretty boy caricatures for far too long. With Saul, he finally gets to inhabit a full-blown eccentric in a movie that's guaranteed to be seen by more than ten people, and the sense of liberation is infectious. For Saul, life is constant discovery (as it is for many stoners who've smoked away their short-term memory); even a rerun of 227 holds the potential for (fleetingly held) wisdom. And while he seems distrustful of most of his clients (he doesn't seem to get out of his horrendously decorated apartment much), he's always happy when Dale comes around. Why? Because Dale - despite his buy-and-dash tendencies - is probably the only guy who's as interested in the history of Saul's "cross-joint" as he is in smoking it (which hastens a brief-but-learned disquisition on Saul's favorite civil engineers).
Since the common bond between Dale and Saul is a finer appreciation for killer weed, most of the actual pot humor is front-loaded into the film's first act. Once the chase is on, the comedy mostly grows out of the boys' inability to defend themselves or simply stay out of harm's way. Out of desperation, they seek assistance from Red (Danny McBride), a low-level associate of Ted's whose interior design sense is about as addled as Saul's. But by the time they get to Red, he's already sold them out to Ted's henchmen, which leads to a painfully uncoordinated brawl that recalls the wanton property destruction of Nic Cage versus John Goodman in RAISING ARIZONA. The aftermath of this fracas also sets up a running joke that nudges the film into absurdism: Red is apparently immortal.
It's a damn good thing, too, since McBride essentially takes over once the ganja gives way to gunplay. Some might be disappointed to see the movie opt for a meta commentary on bad 80s action, but there's something fascinating about watching a nuanced filmmaker like Green indulge his inner Sheldon Lettich; though it drowns out and renders irrelevant the character development of the film's first phase (which wasn't exactly grounded in Cassavetes-like verisimilitude to begin with), it's comforting to know that critically acclaimed auteurs have an affinity for trash, too. Maybe this will empower Olivier Assayas to give up the DV noodling and make his CANNONBALL RUN. We need the high and the low. Would the meditation and melancholy of TOKYO STORY wouldn't mean half as much if we didn't have a little SHARKY'S MACHINE in our diet? What is Ozu without Dar Robinson?
So PINEAPPLE EXPRESS doesn't derail as much as it unexpectedly jumps tracks. It's like setting course for New Haven and ending up in Tuscaloosa: ain't no Yale in sight, but there are plenty of places to get drunk. Then again, stoner comedies have always followed a circuitous, where-the-high-takes-you trajectory: very often, they tend toward episodic (as is the case with most Cheech & Chong efforts); other times, they just amble into another sub-genre altogether. It's slop art, and, in the case of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, it works. Kael would've loved this shit.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
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My balls are huge!
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...while wasted last week. I woke up thinking I had made a huge mistake but I'm now thinking that the way it is tracking, I'm in the money.
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But Danny McBride does take over the movie from Franco. Seth Rogen is just there the entire time. I agree that it would have been funnier to make Rogen's character a complete douche bag/asshole instead of the lovable loser. But, no way this gets the greenlighted if that were the case.
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the action scenes brought the film to a halt. we've got Hot Fuzz, guys.
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Aug 07, 2008 5:26:50 PM CDT
"ain't no Yale in sight but there's plenty of places to get drun
by charlie murphy
that made me chuckle. saw the movie yesterday and i think lots of people are going to come out of the movie a little disappointed. i heard lots of folks saying "it wasn't bad, but i expected something else" and i kind of feel the same way. the movie is funny, the cast is great and the action is insane so by all accounts i should love the movie to bits and pieces, but i merely enjoyed it. I went in expecting non-stop laughs and that's not really what this movie's all about. it's a movie i think will really grow on me the more i see it.
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I love how the "stars" of FREAKS AND GEEKS (that would be the Geeks) haven't exactly gone on to bigger and better things. The Freaks, on the other hand...
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I don't know whether to kiss you or punch you in the eye.
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Thanks for that, Beaks.
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It's probably just because they were a bit younger than most of the freaks. I think Martin Starr is due for comedy vehicle. Also I want to have sex with Linda Cardellini.
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Stoners with machine guns, and from this review, it sounds like I'll be getting what I wanted.
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Like every Apatow movie, it's more of a premise than a plot, stretched out to a taxing two hours of improvised shit that wears thin after the first half hour.
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Is he the unfunny asshole with the neck brace?
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as expected. but i still think Tropic Thunder could top it
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Linda was, technically, a Freak on that show. Plus, she's gone on to things like ER and those SCOOBY-DOO flicks. That doesn't stop me from also desiring to experience social intercourse with her.
That little Jewish kid who could impersonate Shatner? I thought he'd move on to bigger things. I see a whole bunch of "1 episode" credits on his imdb page. Oh, well. -
www.comingsoon.net
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as the adult adolescent dope smoking ne'r-do-well. When has he played anything other than that, besides in Superbad when he was a fat incompetent cop?
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And it was insanely rough. Like just wrapped filming two weeks prior rough, but still funny as hell. While I'm sure the film has taken shape since then this review could just as easily have been from the version I saw. Light on story...no seriously there is probably about 7 seconds of story before a massive gun battle at the end that supposedly comes directly from that 7 seconds....but very heavy on character, which is just fine. Really funny fucking flick
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A few big laughs, a few chuckles, mostly boredom. Every scene went on too long, lots of awkward/pointless scenes... the "it's funny because people you don't expect to swear are cursing like sailors!" bit is really tiring now. They use it as a crutch endlessly (women cops! the girlfriend's parents! old people! kids!). Franco's brilliant, and all the best stuff you can tell was added by Green like Franco on the swing crying while eating a cheeseburger being watched by an awkward third grade girl. Here's hoping TROPIC THUNDER knocks it outta the park.
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that this was going to be your worst movie of the year. Still waiting on that...
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It just wasn't that funny. I had a good time, but neither the action nor the comedy worked all that well.
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Come on now guys! That's two reviews in a row where you guys misidentified the sitcom playing in the background at Saul's. Yesterday someone said it was "The Jeffersons", today, you call it "Good Times" What are you trying to say? All Black Sit-coms look alike? It was '227'! Where's the Marla Gibbs and Helen Martin love??
And on a sidenote, i thought the contrivance of Dale assuming the discarded joint would lead back to him was the first of a series of jokes where the guys kept being paranoid about unlikely shit, then having it come true (like when the Rosie Perez is talking about having triangulated their cell-phones).
Just the idea of these retards meandering through the movie in their goofy way while a serious (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek) action movie is playing out behind them was really funny. Especially the spectacularly dumb fight scene. That was the best part of the movie. -
seems like its been ages since ive been to a hilarious comedy where i've been laughing non stop. 40 year old virgin was great, knocked up, ok, superbad ok.. the last two seemd to have all the hilarious moments in the trailers. harold and kumar in guantamo bay again ok. shoudl i see this or just wait out for tropic thunder?
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Danny McBride is fucking hilarious in this. Beaks review is dead on. there is room in this world for more than one stoner comedy duo movie (although this is a really a trio flick) let your pen dip in the ink...
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but by the end, when (multiple) people end up crushed by a Dae Woo and Franco yells "FUCK THE POLICE!" in slo-mo, I was sold. Not anti-law enforcement, btw, just a bizarre moment. The whole final part was hilarious.
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for best looking stoner film. and i thought saul was watching a re-run of 227, not good times. anyway, i agree with charlie murphy's take on the movie, and with zikade zarathos that franco is brilliant. i expected better, but that's just because apatow has set the bar pretty high with 40 year old virgin, knocked up, superbad, and forgetting sarah marshal.and while i am a fan of his, i am officially tired of seth rogen's solitary note.
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Aug 07, 2008 6:41:40 PM CDT
Linda Cardellini was the 'romantic interest' in GRANDMA'S BOY
by jackie boy
I believe that was her last big film role.
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beat me to it.and has a cool handle.
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That's good coin.And I thought he misidentified the show as 227, but... I guess not? I'll change it. Talkbackers know their African-American sitcoms.
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we'll all be watching it periodically for years. it isn't a machine gun laugh a minute comedy though. it's mellow. that isn't bad, that's different. this movie has some of the best lines since... well... since i can't remember.
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oh, i should mention that i've never done any drugs. ever. this film was funny as hell because it was funny... not because i was high watching it. though... for people who need movies to fire rapidly so they can pay attention... maybe they should be high when they watch.
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Yeah, plot wise, the movie might be a little thin, but some of those wierd little moments where Saul and Dale (and Red) are just spitting bizarre dialoge back and forth at each other was some of the funniest stuff I've seen in a while. The night in the woods, the build-up to the fight at Red's house, and the night-after breakfast were just strange. In a good way.
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I, unlike the poster above, will never tire of Seth Rogan's solitary note. Ever.Saw the movie yesterday and dug the hell out of it. Messy and shaggy in the awesomest of ways.I don't know if it came before or after GRANDMA'S BOY, but Cardellini was also in a little movie called BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Not as critically acclaimed as GRANDMA'S BOY, but reasonably well received...
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Seriously. What was the worst film of the year?? I'm dying to know!
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Although I wished I had smoked before watching this, I was totally happy that the jokes and laughs kept on rolling. It's true the best character moments are in the first half, and the second act drags just a little in terms of laughs, but by the time it gets to the batshit-insane climax, this movie had totally won me over. Whoever said McBride is not funny probably didn't watch the movie. Red is such a fucking fantastic character and has some of the best moments of the film. High(no pun intend)ly recommended.
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Is that, for the first hour I really wished I was high (not just a little drunk), esp. for the intro "What the fuck happenend to your eye?"I will watch this again and correct my mistake on how to view this film. Can't wait to see what'll be on the DVD.
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But something happened at the 45 minute mark, it went from funniest stoner movie ever to worst. Why can't movies about lovable, inebriated losers ever have a successful 3rd act? Big Lewbowski being the exception to the rule.
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Action stoner is my specific niche.
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...my faith in humanity (or at least in the editors of AICN) has been bolstered by the knowledge that even my lowly voice is heard.
(shed a single tear from left eye) -
Seriously, good job.
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Lord knows you would all buy it. Tools.
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way too gratuitously violent for its own good.
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Yay! please tell us how you were the first to hate seth rogen and judd apatow! i bet you get tons of poontang once the ladies know you were the first (not like the bandwagoners)
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There's plenty there for ya.
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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love it, classic, can't wait to own it, Saul is one of my favorite characters ever now and red is right up there too can't wait to see more of mcbride and see franco do more shit like this
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Aug 07, 2008 10:56:39 PM CDT
if shit tasted like this movie, then serve me up a bowl
by irrelevntelefant
cause this shit was funny...
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QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
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Pweeeese?
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Opening scene of Pineapple was my favorite, I think
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way to completely rip off tom bodet
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I kinda felt like this one was made for me too, I've been eagerly waiting a year for this thing to come out and it was well worth the wait
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I fall right in the middle here guys. I enjoyed myself, but I found that I didn't actually laugh very often and it wasn't good looking enough to hold up as an action movie. Not bad, but I could have waited for video.
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It is what it is, it wasn't terribly funny or god awful bad, just ok.
To comment on a post above, Big Lebowski remains unchallenged as the best of the stoner genre, eclipsing even Up and Smoke. The magic of Lebowski is held in it's ability to be viewed hundreds of times with no degradation in content. This movie, like Half Baked before it, can be watched a few times but after that the love is gone. I would recommend The Wackness if you are looking for a recent stoner film that has some depth while not taking itself to seriously. -
Yeah this movie was a HUGE disappointment,Its by far the worst of the apatow/rogen team up's and even though franco was good and seth ok this movie should of been 30 minutes shorter and the jokes much tighter.
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2 hour comedies are ok once in awhile,all apatows films and produced films are starting to get alittle long.
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James Franco and Danny McBride owned this movie. "Super size it, bitch."
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"ROCKET FUEL!"
God have mercy, I actually liked Armed and Dangerous, Beaks..So maybe I'll get a kick out of this, too. -
Seriously, does anybody notice the awkward advances, and gay dialogue that his characters have in movies he writes?? I enjoyed this movie up until the end of the second act, then it just became nonsensical bullshit. Whatever happened to his high school girlfriend? It spent more time in a gun fight then actually wrapping the movie up.
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I mean, god, this could have been great! They must have been smoking a lot of pot during the writing, filming, and editing of this. So many great comedic opportunities wasted in favor of montages of Rogen and Franco smoking pot. What the hell happened with the girlfriend and her high-school admirers? What about the parents? Jokes were set up and then never executed. The biggest problem was that EVERY FUNNY JOKE WAS IN THE GODDAMN PREVIEW! Most jokes fell flat because 90% of the audience had been watching the preview all summer and knew the best jokes! What a fucking mess. My first big disappointment from the Apatow camp.
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The "little kids can take shits" line was absolutely brilliant and Franco executed it flawlessly.
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does it make me so mad that people don't like a movie that I do?! I want to choke all you haters out but I would never (because I can't find any of you) :( And stinkyf, it's called bro love, bro, nothing gay about it...
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Don't get me wrong, it had its moments. All the hype made it out to be the stoner movie to end all stoner movies and it wasn't. I feel it will grow on me, but never be as funny as 40 year old virgin or knocked up. The laughs per scene were just too low.
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Maybe I went in with low expectations, I didn't realize there was much hype for this at all. I thought it was as good, if not better, than Superbad or Knocked Up. As for the drug use - it didn't necessarily make me want to smoke more weed. But it did make me want to date high school students.
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In honor of Mori (who basically just read his contest response emails and made a list... bra-fucking-vo Mori, bravo, my friend), the first three paragraphs of this review will have nothing to do with the movie review itself. Which is also why I will cc' this submission to Harry and the rest of the gang. Someone is bound to either think it's funny or just be real fucking tired and/or stoned.
First off, let me commend the Los Angeles geeks, stoners and slackers(or hybrids thereof) who showed up (quite early, I might add) to get in line for this screening. You either were very motivated (not stoned) or you were a complete stoner and 6pm was borderline “sleeping in” for you. Either way, it felt like high school all over again. By that I mean the fact we were all up against the walls of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, looking … well… looking like the freaks and geeks that we are. And cutting right through the center of our FNG experience was a steady stream of type-a, highly motivated, health conscious people going to workout at a popular LA gym. Fuck them, fuck them in their fat free asses. Those people suck squirrel scrotums (down by the seashore). No, really, they do suck squirrel scrotums. It's like steroids or hgh, only it doesn't show up on any blood tests. It's LA, don't put it past us.
Secondly. Remember what I said, three senseless paragraphs, then my fucking review. This is only number two. And now that I’m wasting it explaining myself, I feel the need to pad it a little. Did I mention the three security guys for the event were built like Oddjob? They knew they were in for an easy shift with the assorted slackers, geeks and stoners ( oh my!). And Mori, if that was you checking the names on the list, way to rock the ASS out of the Michael Moore/Kevin Smith look. Do you have a fanny pack that goes with that outfit?
Fuck the third paragragh, let’s jump into this review. This shit is funny, REAL fucking funny. Fucking funny with explosions and shoot-em-outs and weed. First and foremost, James Franco’s Saul Silver has out Spicolied Spicoli. All I can say is, if you have ever purchased weed, or in my case lived upstairs from a weed dealer (for legal and professional purposes, that’s all I’m willing to admit to) , you know Saul Silver. You have been in his apartment, sat on his couch and watched the equalizer on his hi-fi 90's era home stereo system dance in rhythm to something from the Bob Marley catalogue.
As for Seth Rogen – if Albert Brooks and a young Tim Robbins ( circa ‘Spring Break’) were beamed simultaneously aboard the Starship Enterprise, and their DNA bonded on a molecular level like Jeff Goldblum and the Fly (FUCK JEFF GOLDBLUM!), you would have Seth Rogen. Maybe it’s because we have a similar build, but dammit, he is just a likeable guy.
And to you talkbackers who are on the “I hate Seth Rogen” tour bus, who gives a shit. This is my review, I like the guy (but not enough to suck his dick, Danny_Glovers_Dick_Blood!), so fuck you, you fucking fuckwad fucking fucknuts who disagree. It’s only my opinion, and we all know opinions are like assholes- no one likes theirs getting fucked with by a stranger.
And how about Danny Fucking R McBride . If the R doesn’t already stand for Red, he should go and legally change his name. I am going to go as Red for Halloween.
As for the movie as a whole, I could go into the whole plotline, but why? Dale and Saul are the new Cheech and Chong… wait, no …. would that be Harold and Kumar? Bill and Ted? No, that sequel sucked. Gotta be duo that rocked the shit on the big screen a few times.... Wilder and Pryor? You know what, fuck it. Harold and Kumar are far too motivated and productive to be the new Cheech and Chong. Besides to be the new Cheech and Chong, you gotta have the "Chong" - the perma-stoned- relax-meister-general. Neither Harold nor Kumar fit that bill. So, back to my original statement, Dale and Saul are the new Cheech and Chong. That’s right…. I said it. Superjoint is all you need to know. And the whole door buzzer scene is right along the lines of C&C’s “Daves not here” skit.
Go see this and support quality R rated comedies.
Fuck children under 17 without parent or guardian permission. Leave them to see Brendan Fraser get one step closer to "Encino Man II: No Refunds Given"
Really people, we need at least 3 Dale and Saul movies to get the shit taste of the Mummy Trilogy out of our mouths. Mummys are meant for horror movies you douchebags that supported that crap.
They Call Me Irrelevant Elephant
And once again, should you disagree with any of what I have stated here today,
Opinions…
Assholes…
Neigh means neigh…
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Am I gonna have to throw over Mori and Vern for you? I think I might... More, please!
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think it was a bad ideal, I was totally gone and don't remember the film being as funny as I hoped, gotta see it again straight
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go watch it!
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Mr. Clarence, are you going for a Dennis Miller thing here?, because I'm just not enough of a cinemaphile to keep up with the references and the verbal gymnastics. Also, I've seen about as much of this Seth Rogen dude as I can take. It's like Vin Diesel all over again having pictures and stories about this guy overload my senses.
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Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of laughs but nothing that had me doubled over laughing so hard that I missed brief moments of film. And would someone please get the Apatow gang to ditch the duche bag asian dude who was the Dr. in Knocked Up. He's not funny.
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Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of laughs but nothing that had me doubled over laughing so hard that I missed brief moments of film. And would someone please get the Apatow gang to ditch the duche bag asian dude who was the Dr. in Knocked Up. He's not funny.
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Also one of the funnier parts of the movie. And did anybody else notice towards the end when they're making Saul go down the hatch into the basement, he says "Is there a Rancor down there?"
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He obviously couldn't take Rogen's balls out of his mouth long enough to reasonably assess the film. Yeah, Devin, he's so generous giving the loser (albeit funny loser) role to James Franco while he gets the misfortune of being the guy with Amber Heard as his 18 year old girlfriend (what the fuck?) and gets to be a ridiculous action star hero at the end. Yeah, Devin, he's so generous.
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. . . but Seth Rogen is on Howard Stern. Just said the 18 year old chick from the movie was dating Crispin Glover. Yikes!
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