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.