Pineapple Express

It's a straightforward challenge: can two chain-smoking dopeheads make good to save their own skins? Put another way, what happens when you force two perpetually high quasi-losers into situations where mary-jane is no longer helping and numbing and merely a hindrance?

That said, the question seems to suggest that Pineapple Express might be some kind of serious look at weed smoking. It's not. From the opening sequence (a delightful homage to mobster movies in grainy black-and-white), to the various set-pieces of the film (car-chase, household royal-rumble, final mega-showdown complete with Hollywood of the 90s huge fauxplosion), this film had me giggling. As my observant co-viewer suggested, perhaps it was really one to enjoy while high, because while the content was amusing and absurd in equal measure, it never really rose to the level that the two protagonists were supposedly at - almost blind in a drug heaven, in other words.

Those two protagonists, Dale (Seth Rogen) and Saul (James Franco) make a good go of it. There are some delightful exchanges of dialogue, particularly:

Dale: I'm sorry, that sounded really mean... just to hear that, it sounded mean.

Saul: No, I see. The monkey's out of the bottle now!

Dale: What? That's not even... a figure of speech.

Saul: Pandora can't go back in the box - he only comes out!

I found myself quietly touched by their love-hate relationship, as well. It managed to steer clear of becoming a pathetically homoerotic menage-a-deux, while also introducing an element of care and affection that, to my mind, heightened the comedy. I struggled to be amused by the more overtly man-on-man sexually themed moments, but there was tenderness that did prompt a smile. In a similarly vein, the film managed to steer clear of a happy-ever-after for Dale in the standard sense, which was pleasing. Eff Hollywood, and all that.

However, while Franco and Rogen performed well, Franco in particular, and even with some wonderfully wild additional characters (Danny McBride's Red, a Buddhist friends-first dealer who betrays just about everyone in the film, for instance), the film remains fairly episodic, and perhaps would have been better suited as a series of weed-ventures than one long film. As noted, some sequences were both hilarious and enjoyable, but there were also notable dips in the film when it almost seemed like the director was just killing time before the story moved on into another bit of fun. That, to me, combined with no cinematographic or musical highlights, left me wanting far more than what I received. I'd happily watch Franco and Rogen again, but either this is just an eminently quotable 'grower', or a three-star watch-n-discard.

***

2008

Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride

dir. David Gordon Green