Seth Rogen plays Dale Denton, a lazy stoner who loves nothing more than to smoke weed. His dealer Saul (James Franco) gets a new rare strain of weed called ‘Pineapple Express’. Whilst outside the house of Ted Jones (Gary Cole) he is about to serve a subpoena he witnesses Jones and bent cop Carol (Rosie Perez), commit a murder and in a state of panic dumps his Pineapple Express out the window. Remembering earlier that Saul said that it was rare he heads back there to see how rare and whether it could be tracked back to him and as fate would have it I can. They’re no longer being paranoid; people really are out to get them. They have to turn to Saul’s friend Red (Danny Mc Bride) who they can trust – or can they?
When the trailer first emerged for PINEAPPLE EXPRESS I knew it was one I had to see. I loved THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and SUPER BAD and while I didn’t love it, I still enjoyed KNOCKED UP so it was fair to say I was looking forward to it. However upon finally getting to se it on DVD I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in this one. Maybe I built it up too much but it wasn’t the laugh-a-minute stuff the trailer led me to believe and indeed the majority of the funniest moments were actually shown in the trailer. Yes, it’s true, a trailer ultimately sells a movie but to give away some of the funniest parts only served as a spoiler.
As far as the stars went Seth Rogen was his usual funny self but it was the performances of James Franco and of Danny McBride that stole it for me. Franco was excellent as the dealer who just wants a friend and McBride had some brilliant one-liners. Without going into too much detail there’s a fight scene involving the three that was at times simply hysterical.
While it’s a more than watchable and at times quite a funny film, I expected so much more from it much like ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly I actually laughed more at Ben Stiller’s TROPIC THUNDER and not so well received SEX DRIVE. If you enjoyed any of the above mentioned movies or even if you like stoner movies in general then PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is for you. If you don’t, then this isn’t for you.
Date: 01/02/2009
Rating: 3.5/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/
Sunday 1 February 2009
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