Cynical Cinema

First off, I want to say that Pineapple Express is the worst movie made by the combination of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen.  That being said, it is still better than most other comedies in the world.  And just because it doesn’t live up to the promise of Superbad and 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile.  Because it is.  It is funny.  And it is good. 

Normally, I don’t much like stoner movies.  With the possible exception of Half Baked.  The problem I have with these movies is that they assume the people watching are in on the joke.  Like there’s some kind of giant stoner culture in the world where everyone listens to the same music, watches the same movies and TV shows, and knows all the same jokes.  They have the same vocabulary - reefer, bong, hydro, roach, so on and so forth.  And because I’m watching the movie, they assume I too am a part of this club.  And I’m not.  I don’t want to be a part of this club.  I don’t like this vocabulary.  I don’t like the word “Bogart” being thrown at me by some pothead as though it’s a secret word only him, me, and nine hundred thousand other useless potheads know.

Pineapple Express is different.  Seth Rogen stars as a weed-smoking process server.  His job is to dress up in different disguises in order to get close to people and serve them with legal papers.  James Franco stars as his weed dealer, a total burnout desperate for a friend.  After Rogen witnesses a murder, he and Franco are sent on a crazy flight all over the city, looking for some people and hiding from others.  Originally, the two characters were the opposite.  Franco was cast as the uptight process server and Rogen was to be the laid-back burnout dealer.  Which would have been ideal casting, one would think.  But somehow, along the way, the roles got switched.  And they decided to have Rogen play the guy with the job and the suit and the tie and the girlfriend, and pretty-boy James Franco became the dope smoking burnout.  And it works.  I can only assume it works even better than it would have the other way around.

Franco plays a character as far removed from Harry Osbourne in Spiderman as is possible.  And Rogen is fantastic, as usual.  The chemistry between the two is incredible, and the dialogue is great.  It appears to be dialogue that Rogen and Apatow can write in their sleep, but that is still better than anything this side of Kevin Smith.  The scene at the end, where Rogen, Franco and their dealer buddy Danny McBride are sitting around in a restaurant rehashing the events of the movie is absolutely hilarious.  And the opening scene, where Bill Hader is a test subject in a military experiment with marijuana is priceless. 

After that, the movie is haphazard, and there are moments that are hit-and-miss.  But the spirit of the film is endearing and fun.  The scenes where the two main characters try to do things they’ve seen in action movies, with real life results, are terrific.  Franco tries to kick the window out of a police car, but succeeds only in putting his foot through the windshield, where it gets stuck.  And the car chase ensues, with his foot hanging out of the window in front of him, and we all laugh.  Because it’s real and it’s funny.  And so is the rest of this movie.  Check out Pineapple Express.  You don’t have to be a stoner to like it.  Which is why it’s a good stoner movie.

In The Valley of Elah did poorly at the box office. It turns out people just don’t want to be challenged these days. This is why movies like “Meet The Spartans” debut at #1. I was almost ready to write a review of Meet The Spartans, sight unseen, simply to convince people to avoid it. The same guys who made Epic Movie and Date Movie, which were two incredibly bad films, were clearly going to make one just as bad. And I felt that people going to see this film at all would just encourage them to make more. And so next year we will likely get Pirates Of The Beowulf or some such garbage. But even had I done so, it would not have mattered much. People would still have gone out to Meet The Spartans in droves, and the dumbest two percent of those people would have recommended it glowingly to their friends. “They have a pit! Like the one in 300. Like, EXACTLY the SAME. And they kick Britney Spears into it! I have never laughed so hard in my life! Except for the time I took that IQ test and got a result lower than ‘celery”". Meet The Spartans earned 18.7 million dollars in it’s first weekend at the box office, narrowly beating Rambo for top spot. In The Valley Of Elah made 1.5 million dollars on opening weekend, and left theatres having earned 6.7 million overall.

I don’t know why I’m mentioning Meet The Spartans and In The Valley Of Elah in the same sentence. I think it’s merely a method of illustrating the general idiocy and apathy of movie audiences today. Because people do not want to be challenged. They don’t want to think at the movies. And they certainly don’t want a movie that will make them think once they have left the theatre. That’s like bringing your work home with you! Imagine going to that movie with your wife, and then in the car on the way home, she wants to TALK about it! That certainly seems like more effort than it’s worth, doesn’t it? And, I’m sorry to say, for all you movie-watchers, that In The Valley Of Elah will spark discussion, and make you think, and might just lead to other topics of discussion as well. Topics like…Iraq. How this war is different. This war is not World War II. It is not even Vietnam. This is something that we haven’t seen before, and in this film we see that perfectly through the eyes of Tommy Lee Jones, who has deservedly earned a Best Actor nomination for this Sunday’s Oscars.

Jones plays the father of a missing boy. His son returned from the war in Iraq, and then disappeared completely. And Jones goes after him with the single-minded determination of a war veteran. A vet himself, Jones is that uber-American army guy who, after his many years of service, is still completely invested in the army. Not that he still works with them and does army-related things, but he is emotionally invested. He believes strongly in the bonds that connect soldiers, in the military code of discipline and in the army. Which means he believes the war in Iraq is important, that it is American and that it is just another proving ground for young men who love their country and are bringing democracy and peace to a backward nation. But his search for his son challenges those beliefs, and he will not be the same man when the search is over. In The Valley of Elah was in the top 200 movies at the box-office in 2007. It was in the top 100 R-rated movies. (Although I really don’t know why this was rated R. We don’t see that much of the blood and gore that is insinuated throughout the film.) And it had the 233rd biggest opening weekend of the year. But it is one of the 20 best movies made in 2007.

Charlize Theron co-stars as a police officer who aids Jones in his quest for his sone, and provides one of the few problems I have with the movie. We know who Charlize Theron is. We have seen her in dozens of movies where we are fully aware that she is one of the hottest women alive. And yet, in this movie as in others, she seems to be intentionally dialing down her looks. She is just not that hot here. And we have to think to ourselves - we know how gorgeous this woman is. Why wouldn’t she want to look good? Sure she’s a police officer, but would she, as a police officer, go out of her way to look as plain as possible? Well, maybe. Susan Sarandon shows up in what turns out to be a bit part as Jones’ wife and the boy’s mother. And a stellar cast make up the military unit with whom the boy was serving. In The Valley of Elah is a terrific achievement. It’s slow, it’s deliberate, and it’s very political. It will challenge your assumptions - even if you are already against the war in Iraq, there are still other questions posed by the movie that will make you think. This may be the most accurate representation of soldiers in Iraq yet put on film in a feature film. It should really be seen. By everyone. Let’s at the very least make it a success on DVD!