Click Here For Our Interview with James Franco
Click Here For Our Interview with Seth Rogen
Click Here For Our Interview with Rosie Perez
Click Here For Our Interview with Danny McBride

Pineapple Express

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

You don’t have to be a stoner to enjoy the hazy-hilarious head trip that is Pineapple Express. You just have to like to laugh. And you will laugh, a lot.

Directed by David Gordon Green (taking on an interesting follow-up to his last film, the dark Snow Angels), produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogan, who wouldn’t want to ride the Pineapple Express?

Dale Denton’s a pothead loser with an inappropriate high school-aged girlfriend and a job as a process server that basically allows him to be high all day. But next to his dealer Saul Silver(James Franco), Dale (Rogan) almost looks like the picture of success. With stringy long hair and a heavy-lidded gaze, the spacey Saul spouts nonsense like it’s wisdom. He’s got a prime stash of weed and sells Dale his very best, “Pineapple Express.”

And, of course, their highs inevitably lead to hijinks. Dale inadvertently witnesses a murder while smoking a joint in his car. Turns out, there’s a powerful drug dealer (Gary Cole) and a corrupt cop (Rosie Perez) involved and it doesn’t take them long to figure out it was Dale who saw them. Dale and Saul decide to make a run for their lives, but they soon realize they’re in deep.

The comedy is first-rate and the action is blazing. The car chase scene in particular is crazy stonerific. Saul tries to kick out the front windshield while driving and ends up with his foot stuck out of it. But no matter how over-the-top the action gets, at its core Pineapple Express is a simple story about the friendship between a pothead and his dealer. To make use of a new term, it’s a “bromance.” And it’s what ultimately holds the film together. Rogan and Franco, together again after their Freaks and Geeks days, have the kind of chemistry great buddy-movies are made of. No matter how many times I see the commercials, the scene where Saul hops into the dumpster gets me every time. Dale thinks they should keep going, but Saul thinks they should stay. Why? “Because I’m in the dumpster already,” is Saul’s spot-on reply. Franco’s turns as Saul is an unexpected highlight. Who knew the guy known for more serious dramatic fare would fit so well into the Judd Apatow world?

Rosie Perez and Gary Cole relish their roles as the “bad guys” Ted and Carol, and its fun watching them go all out as cartoonish villains. Danny McBride as Red, a fellow pot dealer who the guy’s turn to for help, is a true comedic find we’ll surely be seeing a lot more of. He has another scene-stealing part in the upcoming Tropic Thunder and he’ll be starring alongside Will Ferrell in the Land of ...