dir David Gordon Green, scrpl Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, cin Tim Orr, ed Craig Alpert
Red: Man, I’m just into Buddhism, and I’m at peace with the fact that me, as this person, probably gonna not be around. Think about a hermit crab, okay? And it's a shell. It’s like, they go from one shell to the next. And that’s what I am. I'm just a hermit crab changin’ shells.
Dale: Except if you’re a dick your whole life, your next shell will be made of shit, okay? If you’re an asshole, you're gonna come back as a cockroach or a worm or a fuckin’ anal bead, okay? If you’re a man and you act heroic, you'll come back as an eagle. You’ll come back as a dragon. You’ll come back as Jude Law, okay? Which would you rather be?
Red: Maybe the anal bead, depending on who it belongs to.
Dale: Belongs to me.
Red: Then the dragon.
The best part of Sunday night’s predictably bloated, self-congratulatory Oscar telecast was Judd Apatow’s short tribute to comedy in 2008, with Seth Rogan and James Franco reprising their characters from Pineapple Express. I’ve been a fan of Apatow’s universe since his short-lived TV series, Freaks and Geeks (1999), but I hadn’t found the time to watch his latest production. The Oscar skit was sufficiently charming that I moved Pineapple Express to the top of my screening queue.
The film did not disappoint. Largely a dumb stoner comedy, the plot revolves about process server Dale Denton (Rogan), who witnesses a murder. The killers are drug kingpin Ted Jones (Cole) and his girlfriend Carol (Perez), a corrupt police officer. Dale is stoned when he stumbles on the crime, and in a fit of drug-induced paranoia he flees the scene, carelessly leaving behind a roach. Naturally, Ted recognizes the marijuana as his own rare strain, called Pineapple Express. This leads the killers to Denton’s dealer Saul Silver (Franco), and a wacky chase-fueled buddy comedy.
Sure it’s puerile—there are plenty of kicks to the crotch and a lot of mindless stoner ramblings. And the plot is filled with dead-ends. A weirdly amusing prologue and a subplot with Dale’s underaged girlfriend (Heard) are poorly resolved. The film’s climax unexpectedly veers into a gratuitous bloodbath. But it’s damned funny.
I was in stitches when Saul attempts to rescue Dale, evading the cops in a stolen police cruiser. The windshield is covered in red slushie, so Saul attempts to kick it out, like they do in the movies. The result, and it’s effect on their chase is the films best sustained gag. Dale and Saul also find themselves in an amusing, and incredibly destructive, stoner fight with another dealer named Red (McBride).
While there’s nothing particularly original or groundbreaking here, Pineapple Express met my basic criteria for a good comedy, keeping me laughing throughout.