Pineapple Express: Movie Review

Pineapple Express: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Amber Heard
Director: David Gordon Green
Just what is it with actor Seth Rogen and producer Judd Apatow?
The pair have formed a pretty solid cinematic relationship - albeit one which barely sees Rogen transcending the puerile.
Many of Rogen's recent big screen forays have seen him portray a man child who is being pulled into adulthood, kicking and screaming.
In some ways, Pineapple Express is a slight re-tread of that character.
Seth Rogen is dead end Dale Denton, a process server by the day and pothead by, erm, day too. He goes from one banal serving to another, enlivened only by a toke as well as a creative way to serve notice on his unwilling victims.
Then one day after picking up some of the finest (and unique) weed around from his dealer Saul (a great performance from James Franco), his life is changed when he witnesses a gang hit - carried out by Gary Cole's Ted Jones and Rosie Perez's Carol the cop.
Terrified, he drops his smoked dope and drives off - but Jones realises where the dope's come from and the chase begins&.
Pineapple Express is a bit of a curio of genres - there is the stoner comedy mix supplied by Rogen and Franco (they decide to flee but only after they have taken enough snacks for the journey); the action violence (Cole's character is waging a gang war complete with multiple explosions and smatterings of violence) as well as the romantic relationship (Rogen's romancing Amber Heard's Angie Anderson school girl character) which is stuck in an uncertain rut.
And the opening, which serves as a kind of prequel, sees a US soldier tested for the effects of dope throws everyone off the scent.
It's almost as if director David Gordon Green and Rogen (who co-wrote the screenplay) have set out to subvert all the different trappings and expectations of film genres and muddied the waters.
Rogen is good - but he's blown off the screen by his partner in crime James Franco whose performance is just brilliant and is worth the price of admission alone.

Pineapple Express isn't a bad film - you'll probably leave the cinema having had a few laughs but in a bit of a haze about what exactly you've seen.