Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: January 27th, 2009

    

O' Kay Comedy... Probably Better if You're a Stoner

    "Pineapple Express" is the latest formula comedy from Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen that falls quite short of their earlier collaborations; "40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." It's not that it's a bad movie, it's not. There are interesting and humorous scenes, but by the end of the movie, I find that the movie left me with little take from it - almost like I myself was as stoned by its conclusion as the two leading men were nearly its entirety.

    In Seth Rogen as one of the leading men, Dale Denton, and James Franco as Saul Silver, the other leading man, we find two "ne'er do well" pot fiends who are first on a mission to find nirvana thru marijuana and then after they tangle with the wrong dude, drug trafficker Ted Jones played by accomplished comedic actor Gary Cole, and their next mission becomes to save their skins. What comedy there is in this movie is packed in this theme, and it becomes a battle of the incompetents to see who endures.

    Danny McBride as Red, their fellow stoner and further up the pot distribution ladder, first stands as their incompetent adversary, when the fur began fly, and then their comrade in cannabis as he finds that Ted Jones will not improve his life - just end it. The movie has a great many gags and situation stoner comedy and the laughs come in bunches and then we have to deal with story, that frankly falls a bit short. Somewhat formula, somewhat unbelievable, and definitely unsympathetic for the non-stoner.

    If Cheech and Chong movies are your taste, you may consider Pineapple Express a near classic. For stoner movies, the first Harold and Kumar is my favorite, but the story was not formula, there are more laughs and there is not pretension to any semblance of reality. I guess it's a matter of taste, but "Pineapple Express," instead of its 117 minutes of runtime could have easily fit all of its laughs and story into a 60 minute movie. I am happy to give the movie 2 stars, but then again, I'm not a stoner.

    Released on DVD January 6, 2009. Rated R.