Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express is the latest in the long line of Judd Apatow produced, R rated comedies, starring Seth Rogen and some other series regulars. The stoner humor from knocked up and superbad is there but this time it's turned up to the Nth degree. Seth Rogen plays Dale Denton, a stoner who works for a company that privately serves subpoenas for the government. He spends most of his day in the car driving and listening to talk radio as he aspires to one day host his own show. He is also dating an 18 year old high school senior which is every 25 year old stoner's dream. His dealer is Saul (James Franco) an unemployed loser type who smokes pot all day while watching reruns of old sitcoms from the 70s. Franco does a great job playing a character against type as he has been mostly known as a heart throb but in this he looks like he hasn't bathed in 5 days.

The movie starts off as a typical stoner comedy would but as Dale ends up finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time it quickly turns into a slapstick run for your life action comedy. Dale witnesses a murder comitted by the biggest drug dealer in town and the link between the criminals and Saul is an exotic type of weed called Pineapple Express. This ensues into the guys running for their lives and trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys which of course never works out quite right. The real scene stealer in this movie is Danny McBride (Foot Fist Way, Tropic Thunder) who plays Red the drug dealer that Saul goes to. McBride is an up and coming comedian who broke big with his mockumentary about a strip mall Tae Kwan Doe instructor who starts to get a big head beating around 10 year olds all day. Guys like Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller loved the movie, took McBride under their comedic wing, and now McBride has been getting some great roles in this summer's batch of comedies. He has a great delivery and theres something about his on screen presence that just makes you laugh. Between him and Craig Robinson (The Office) who is a henchmen there are a great amount of laughs from the supporting cast.

Overall, the movie is very much hit and miss. The action is well done but seems a bit out of place with some of the stoner jokes. This is something Tropic Thunder was able to do much better. Franco is great as Saul and Seth Rogen plays a pretty good straight man as always. I think the action scenes were a bit of a warm up for Rogen's debut as the Green Lantern in 2 years. Pineapple Express is up there with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Superbad but not the best comedy of the year. Worth checking out, especially if you're into the ganja as this movie has got to be great high.

7/10