Pineapple Express

Fans of an extraordinary filmmaker like David Gordon Green may be a little caught of guard that his latest feature is a mainstream stoner comedy.  He happens to be in good hands with Judd Apatow serving as producer on 'Pineapple Express', but is this genre Green's forte?  Despite its numerous flaws, the film has the potential to catapult Green into the mainstream limelight, enabling him to get bigger budgeted projects off the ground, like perhaps his adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's 'A Confederacy of Dunces' which never came to fruition.  I'm not sure if Green has personally toked when choosing his projects, but 'Pineapple Express' has a disjointed quality and is filled with paranoia and delusion; the perfect elements for a comedy about two stoners who inadvertently start a drug war.

Frequent Apatow collaborator Seth Rogen reteams with his 'Superbad' co-writer Evan Goldberg and stars as Dale, who despite having a decent job as a process server, still can't seem to get it together.  With a job that takes him around the city in his beat up Cadillac, he has plenty of time to smoke, fool around with his high school girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) and smoke some more.  That chronic that Dale loves almost as much as his girlfriend comes from his dealer Saul (James Franco) who has clearly been using his own product.  Sporting long dirty hair and a headband, Saul looks like what would have happened to one of the Z-boy skateboarders of the 70's if they decided to choose weed over endorsements. 

Dale and Saul clearly have no lives or friends other than each other and it's going to take a life altering experience along with some male bonding for them to realize that.  Their journey to that discovery begins when Saul lays on Dale a sample of weed called 'Pineapple Express.'  The aroma alone gets Dale high and the sample is so rare that Saul likens smoking it to "killing a unicorn."  Never one to turn down a taste of something new, Dale takes a few hits with Saul before delivering one last summons for the night.  He's supposed to serve papers to one Ted Jones (Gary Cole again pushing the limit with his comedic characterizations) and while sitting in his parked car, Dale takes just few more hits of that chronic only to witness Ted and a female cop blow the brains of an Asian man all over his house's big glass window.  In a panic Dale bangs up the cop's squad car with his Cadillac and drives away, but there's just one problem.  He dropped the leftover roach of 'Pineapple Express' at the scene.  On top of that, when Ted discovers it he knows exactly what it is because he happens to be the manufacturer.

Dale races back to Saul's place and after recounting the story they decide in a fit of paranoia to go on the run, figuring Ted will connect the roach to them.  To get a handle on just how dangerous Ted may be, Saul contacts his dealer and best friend Red (Danny McBride) who unbeknownst to them has sold them out to Ted and his two bumbling hitmen (Kevin Corrigan & Craig Robinson). 

Though Dale and Saul must go on the run, being in a major city, there are not too many places they can hide.  What's worse is that they continue to get stoned and in one humorous sequence spend a night in a forest only to fall asleep in Dale's car for fourteen hours.  Then there's the paranoia that comes with toking as Dale figures the bad guys will go after his girlfriend Angie and races to her house to save her.  The problem is it's the night he's supposed to meet her parents (Ed Begley, Jr. and Nora Dunn) for the first time at a family dinner and not only is he a mess, but it's obvious he's high.  Saul also has his own worries and it involves his love/hate relationship with his grandma (or "booby" as he calls her) and the fact that he only deals to pay for her retirement home expenses.  He's also under the delusion that as soon as she dies, he's going to quit dealing and become a civil engineer.

Even Ted the villain has his own set of problems concerning a drug war with his rivals "the Asians" that ignited after Dale witnessed him killing their brother.  He and his partner the female cop are under the assumption that Dale is some type of professional hitman hired by his competition to eliminate him.  It all culminates in another one of those "one last shipment" situations that not only brings the heroes and villains face to face, but erupts into a cliche ridden gunfight in a drug lab.

'Pineapple Express' has a strong opening and then somewhere in the middle of the story, the situations get too silly and take unnecessary detours from the main story, much like that paranoia that can accompany a bad buzz.  There's a confrontation with Angie's rifle wielding dad that gets out of hand, Dale and Saul get chased while driving a stolen police car and the typical argument where they go their separate ways only to reunite for the climax. Thankfully the picture recovers in its third act which involves verbal, physical and artillery assaults.  This is where much of the male bonding and self-realization occurs and though at times they can be over-the-top its appropriate for this type of story.

Rogen has played a leading man before and though he excels as the funny guy, he's actually much more humorous as the "straight man".  The opposite can be said of Franco, who despite his good looks has a goofy and comedic talent that is rarely tapped. (This film might make him the star that 'Spider-man' was supposed to.) They're both veterans of Apatow's nearly forgotten cult TV series "Freaks and Geeks"  and their relationship isn't like an odd couple, but more like a marriage.  There's plenty of silliness and male bonding in the upcoming 'Tropic Thunder' and though that film may be much more humorous, 'Pineapple Express' handles those elements in a better fashion.  This is actually the more mature film, despite being about two stoners, because ultimately they discover its time to get their acts together and assume responsibility.  It just so happens that these two come to this realization while dodging death and a hail of bullets.

Despite the fact that Apatow serves as producer, Green isn't interested in following the man's familiar formula and has brought aboard his creative team of cinematographer Tim Orr to give the film a greater scope and McBride, whose presence adds flavor to Dale and Saul's relationship.  Though he sold them out, Red's quest for redemption is not only an interesting arc for his character, but enhances Dale and Saul's development, with hilarious results of course.

There's no doubt that Hollywood will be knocking on Green's door with more opportunities after the release of this film.  It would be a good thing too, because they could use more creative minds like his.