Pineapple Express Review

Last week i ended up going to the cinema a lot and subsequently i am probably going to be writing a lot of reviews because of it and here is my first of that week (though it wasn't the first film i saw that week it is the one i am most eager to review).



Pineapple Express starts telling the story of Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and what his day-to-day life is like, which introduces the character of Saul Silver (James Franco) who is Dale's drug dealer and friend. Saul supplies Dale with a new form of weed described as "the dopest dope", this form of weed is Pineapple Express. Later whilst Dale is doing his job as a process server he witnesses a murder, the murderers unfortunately see him and he leaves the remenants of his joint at the scene pinpointing him to Saul.
The film from herein onwards turns into an on the run film which builds the friendship of Dale and Saul.

Pineapple Express has a well meaning and effective plot in the way that it does show a compassionate charm of having two drug fuelled stoners becoming friends because of a threat on their lives and though this is one of the elements of the film that is pulled off effectively it never seems to create any sort of climax to the friendship, though it tries it doesn't work and just becomes part of the plot instead of being a heartfelt piece of cinema that ties into the plot. Luckily the moments wherein their friendship is building is warmingly funny.

Pineapple Express lacks in the way that it seems too much like it's a film which just describes it's plot to a piece of script that just tries to flow along but fails because of it's lack of jokes that could easily be fitted in to a plot which should have loads of potential for making a laugh out loud movie.
The times at which Pineapple Express does present it's audience with humour it seems to be that it is in no context with the overall script and therefore lacks a lot of amusement about the jokes and dampens the fact that the overall plot idea might just be because it is deemed cool instead of actually being Seth Rogen's idea of a plot bursting with opportunity for comedic excellence.

James Franco does help save the movie from seeming like a dull illustration with a wonderful performance that captures the elements of what the movie should be about and luckily he helps it to allow to hang on to those elements that do make it interesting. One particularly noticeable thing about James Franco's performance is that as opposed to Seth Rogen he can pull off the part of a drug addict successfully in the ways that it's believeable which allows it to be funny and it encompasses those visuals of a drug dealer having a comic aspect to him that actually makes it funny. The problem with Seth Rogen's performance as a drug addict (which he seems to have in all his films) are that he sees them as being funny on script and that if he supplies the audience with a character who just obsesses about how much he loves weed then it will be funny without thinking at all about whether his portrayal is realistic.

Rogen does however pull out of the bag one of the funniest and best chase scenes i have ever seen and it is a shame that the rest of the movie doesn't offer more scenes like this because it perfectly shows how it is possible to bridge that gap between comedy and action and still do something original.

Pineapple Express does portray some enjoyable action scenes and it is in these that the best humour comes and luckily it doesn't go over the top with comedic fights, which could potentially ruin a lot of the movie if they were exasberated so easily. Unfortunately there are a lot of throaway scenes that seem to be centered around just the humour of the movie.

In short Pineapple Express is an enjoyable, slightly heartfelt romp that delivers but nowhere near enough as a movie with this much potential should.


Rating: ***
Best bit: The Chase Scene
Sequel?: No
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