Weeksy
First up, thanks to Sony Pictures Australia, we have 10 great Pineapple Express packs to Give Away! (Aussie readers only). First in, Best Dressed. Email Us Here
So far, I’ve enjoyed all of the crop of Judd Apatow related projects, from “40 Year Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up”, “Superbad”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” etc. (OK, so maybe “Drillbit Taylor” wasn’t the greatest film in the world), so quite obviously, I was looking forward to seeing the latest Seth Rogen starring comedy, “Pineapple Express”. Â If you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s the general deal of what it’s all about:
“Pineapple Express” is basically a story about Dale & Saul. When Dale (Rogen) isn’t hanging out with his High School aged Girlfriend, Angie (Amber Heard), he spends his days as a Process Server who also enjoys smoking (quite a bit) of weed during the day. Saul (James Franco) is his dealer, who turns him onto the titular Pineapple Express brand of smoke that only he, his supplier Red (Danny McBride) & Red’s boss Ted Jones (Gary Cole) have access to. When Dale is serving his last subpoena of the day, he witnesses Ted & police officer Carol (Rosie Perez) murdering a competitor, in his panic, he leaves his joint at the scene, which puts him on the run with Saul – and puts Ted and his two Hitmen, Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) & Matheson (Craig Robinson) in hot pursuit.
So, in brief, I enjoyed it a lot more than Clint did - but here’s why: first off, Rogen & Franco are both fantastic, Franco in particular is hysterical as Saul – I’ve been a fan of his since “Freaks & Geeks”, and it’s about time that he got a true leading role like this, he pulls it off effortlessly, and I defy anyone not to feel an instant contact high from watching him onscreen. Rogen on the other hand just continues that trajectory of being incredibly funny & charming in every role – if you’ve found him to be likable in any of the other flicks I mentioned at the beginning, you won’t be disappointed here – but above it all, the chemistry between Rogen & Franco is excellent.
In fact it’s not a stretch to say that all of the cast have done a great job here – Craig Robinson (“The Office”), Gary Cole (“Office Space”), Amber Heard (“All The Boys Love Mandy Lane”), Kevin Corrigan (“Superbad”) & Rosie Perez (“White Men Can’t Jump”) all fill out the meatier roles with ease, and it all gels together as another one of those Apatow Gangs. Alongside those, there are also the typical cameos that you’ve come to expect from this batch of films – many of which are very, very funny in their execution.
The thing that works the best for me in “Pineapple Express” is the fact that it remains consistently funny all the way through – some of Franco’s Non sequitur stoner lines in particular had me busting a gut laughing (his line involving a Rancor is perhaps the highlight for me). But bringing the funny isn’t something that this crop of comedies has had to worry about so far. What is potentially a worry when watching this film in particular is the massive need you must have to suspend disbelief – and I don’t mean the Seth Rogen managing to get Katherine Heigl in “Knocked Up” type of suspension – I mean some veeeerrrryyyyy heavy suspension.
Remember how “From Dusk Til’ Dawn” was kind of like two movies in one? The first half being the cool kind of crime flick, and the second half being the balls to the wall Vampire slaying goodness? Do yourself a favour and keep that in mind when watching this, because whereas the first half of “Pineapple” has a kind of “Midnight Run” vibe to it, the second half is full of insanely over the top action sequences (but still very funny) – and if you’re not prepared to go with it, you’ll quickly find yourself disliking it. I’ll be honest and say that I’m very interested in seeing if I personally still feel the same way about this in 6 months when I’m watching it in the comfort of my living room on DVD – it played like gangbusters in the Theatre, but again, I had the benefit of being with a great audience who all seemed to “get it”, and kept up the enthusiasm all the way through. When Clint was telling me about the film a few weeks back, he likened the action in it to “National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon”, and while I never found it to reach that level of “wink-wink” type action, I can absolutely see where he was coming from in his comparison.
So with all of that I mind, I really enjoyed “Pineapple Express” – it’s a very clever, very funny film, and probably not quite the kind of film you were expecting to see from those involved, but at the end of it all, the chemistry between the leads, combined with the hilarious script by Rogen & Evan Goldberg means that this is absolutely worth your hard earned cash at the Box Office.
