Jason KingPineapple Express ($11-)
August 7th 2008 05:06
Category: No Category
Pineapple Express ($11-)
It's such a tough job writing a film review. You have to endeavor to be in a non emotional state when entering the cinema so the film can mold your emotions to its canvas. For example if I had not stayed up until 4am feeding an addiction to World of Warcraft and had instead gone to bed at a respectable hour, had awoken fresh and fabulous, had eaten a nice breakfast and then had three or four hits of Pineapple Express through a glorious bucket bong while listening to Bob Marley and burning nice incense then I may have enjoyed this film a bit more. My point is, if you go in to watch a film tired and in need of more coffee as opposed to all refreshed and physically and spiritually prepared it might be viewed through more rose colored glasses. But enough of my bullshitting babbling - this film is just OK. I expected So MUCH MORE!!!!
The guys who brought you Superbad reunite for the action-comedy Pineapple Express. Lazy stoner Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) has only one reason to visit his equally lazy dealer Saul Silver (James Franco): to purchase weed, specifically, a rare new strain called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and the city's most dangerous drug lord (Gary Cole), he panics and dumps his roach of Pineapple Express at the scene. Dale now has another reason to visit Saul: to find out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back to him. And it is. As Dale and Saul run for their lives, they quickly discover that they’re not suffering from weed-fueled paranoia; incredibly, the bad guys really are hot on their trail and trying to figure out the fastest way to kill them both.
Seth Rogan is on a film train with comedy after comedy coming out and I don't see much difference between them all even though he is fast becoming the comic hero of this teen generation movement (whatever letter has been assigned to them now). I found Knocked Up pretty funny, Superbad was pretty funny and Pineapple Express is pretty funny. It's like 80% great comedy is put into these films but if the writers and Seth Rogan put in a 100% effort then we would have comedic genius. James Franco is absolutely perfect in this role and he reminded me of the Brad Pitt character from True Romance. The comic chemistry when the two guys are together is beautiful and the occasional funny scenes are &^%$ing hilarious but the in between parts are flat. I think it's this new age comedy of dialogue that you see in Juno, Knocked Up, Superbad etc. It's the characters talking random things about life observances that are scripted well but would never be real dialogue between people. It's that babbling intelligent observation comedy that is too smart for itself.
Considering these guys are on the run from the most ruthless drug lord imaginable they needed a scary murderous evil drug lord character to balance their half brained stoned characters. What the film needed was the pig utilising murderous gangster from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the guy with the gutter tongue who scared the shit out of you. Instead we get a candy cane version played by Gary Cole who came across more as a Sunday tennis playing dealer who smokes his own dope. And what's with the rabid Rosie Perez, she was ridiculous in this film and kind of pointless. I did find the character "Red" played hysterically by Danny R. McBride thoroughly enjoyable. He was seen in the Heartbreak Kid and will soon be in mega comedy Tropic Thunder.
This film is a homage to pot and no doubt will get a huge cult following - for stoners there are lots of inside jokes you will find funny. It took me back to my stoner days and all the shenanigans me and my school friends got up to. Did the director even think to embrace this and provide a cameo of some of Hollywood's bigger pot champions. I would have loved to have seen Woody Harrelson reborn into this film as one of the hitmen. They could have had Cheech as his hitman partner. There are also some scenes of a giant hydro pot farm and some of those buds did have a small amount of saliva dripping down my chin. Hehe
I do think this film will not be for everyone - it will hit huge with teenage boys, perhaps the females for James Franco although he isn't his pin up boy in this film and this is awesome for him. I also think stoners should get up off the couch and venture out for this one and while I say "DRUGS ARE BAD PEOPLE!!!!!" this film is PRO marijuana and had me thinking of having a few doobies, especially prior to the screening so I could be on level.
Trivia:
1) The source of inspiration for making Pineapple Express, according to producer Judd Apatow, was Brad Pitt's character in True Romance (1993), a stoner named Floyd - OMG, this is exactly what I thought so he hit on the money here!!. Apatow "thought it would be funny to make a movie in which you follow that character out of his apartment and watch him get chased by bad guys". According to Rogen, the ideal production budget was $40 million, but due to the subject matter—"because it's a weed movie", as he put it—Sony Pictures allotted $25 million.
2) David Gordon Green met with Apatow, Rogen and Goldberg on the set of Knocked Up, and later on the set of Superbad to discuss the project. Gordon cited The Blues Brothers, Midnight Run, Running Scared, and Stir Crazy as sources of inspiration and influence on directing the film.
3) Rogen was originally going to play the "stoner buddy" character of Saul Silver, but Apatow suggested that Franco should play Saul. After a table read, Rogen agreed, thus casting himself in the role of Dale Denton.
4) Seth Rogen spoke with musician Huey Lewis, of Huey Lewis and the News, on writing and performing the film's theme song in November 2007.
Music:
The soundtrack is brilliant and the music is superbly melded with the film.
Track Listing:
1. "Pineapple Express" – Huey Lewis and the News (4:27)
2. "Electric Avenue" – Eddy Grant (3:48)
3. "Dr. Greenthumb" – Cypress Hill (3:08)
4. "Lost at Birth" – Public Enemy (3:33)
5. "Poison" – Bell Biv DeVoe (4:20)
6. "Wanted Dread and Alive" – Peter Tosh (4:22)
7. "Don't Look Around" – Mountain (3:44)
8. "Pineapple Chase (aka The Reprise of the Phoenix)" – Graeme Revell (3:03)
9. "Bird's Lament" – Moondog & The London Saxophonic (2:02)
10. "Coconut Girl" – Brother Nolan (3:36)
11. "Hilawe" – Arthur Lyman (1:09)
12. "Tha Crossroads" – Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (3:45)
13. "Pineapple Fight" (aka "The Nemesis Proclaimed") – Graeme Revell (3:08)
14. "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You" – Spiritualized (5:12)
15. "Woke Up Laughing" – Robert Palmer (3:35)
While not everyone and while I enjoyed it I did want more and thought it could have had a bit more thought into it. Worth: $11-
DISCLAIMER: This author and NO ONE related in any way to Salty Popcorn suggests in any way that smoking marijuana prior to or during this film is a good thing. DRUGS ARE BAD and the effects of marijuana may have harmful effects on your mind and body.
It's such a tough job writing a film review. You have to endeavor to be in a non emotional state when entering the cinema so the film can mold your emotions to its canvas. For example if I had not stayed up until 4am feeding an addiction to World of Warcraft and had instead gone to bed at a respectable hour, had awoken fresh and fabulous, had eaten a nice breakfast and then had three or four hits of Pineapple Express through a glorious bucket bong while listening to Bob Marley and burning nice incense then I may have enjoyed this film a bit more. My point is, if you go in to watch a film tired and in need of more coffee as opposed to all refreshed and physically and spiritually prepared it might be viewed through more rose colored glasses. But enough of my bullshitting babbling - this film is just OK. I expected So MUCH MORE!!!!
The guys who brought you Superbad reunite for the action-comedy Pineapple Express. Lazy stoner Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) has only one reason to visit his equally lazy dealer Saul Silver (James Franco): to purchase weed, specifically, a rare new strain called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and the city's most dangerous drug lord (Gary Cole), he panics and dumps his roach of Pineapple Express at the scene. Dale now has another reason to visit Saul: to find out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back to him. And it is. As Dale and Saul run for their lives, they quickly discover that they’re not suffering from weed-fueled paranoia; incredibly, the bad guys really are hot on their trail and trying to figure out the fastest way to kill them both.
Seth Rogan is on a film train with comedy after comedy coming out and I don't see much difference between them all even though he is fast becoming the comic hero of this teen generation movement (whatever letter has been assigned to them now). I found Knocked Up pretty funny, Superbad was pretty funny and Pineapple Express is pretty funny. It's like 80% great comedy is put into these films but if the writers and Seth Rogan put in a 100% effort then we would have comedic genius. James Franco is absolutely perfect in this role and he reminded me of the Brad Pitt character from True Romance. The comic chemistry when the two guys are together is beautiful and the occasional funny scenes are &^%$ing hilarious but the in between parts are flat. I think it's this new age comedy of dialogue that you see in Juno, Knocked Up, Superbad etc. It's the characters talking random things about life observances that are scripted well but would never be real dialogue between people. It's that babbling intelligent observation comedy that is too smart for itself.
Considering these guys are on the run from the most ruthless drug lord imaginable they needed a scary murderous evil drug lord character to balance their half brained stoned characters. What the film needed was the pig utilising murderous gangster from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the guy with the gutter tongue who scared the shit out of you. Instead we get a candy cane version played by Gary Cole who came across more as a Sunday tennis playing dealer who smokes his own dope. And what's with the rabid Rosie Perez, she was ridiculous in this film and kind of pointless. I did find the character "Red" played hysterically by Danny R. McBride thoroughly enjoyable. He was seen in the Heartbreak Kid and will soon be in mega comedy Tropic Thunder.
This film is a homage to pot and no doubt will get a huge cult following - for stoners there are lots of inside jokes you will find funny. It took me back to my stoner days and all the shenanigans me and my school friends got up to. Did the director even think to embrace this and provide a cameo of some of Hollywood's bigger pot champions. I would have loved to have seen Woody Harrelson reborn into this film as one of the hitmen. They could have had Cheech as his hitman partner. There are also some scenes of a giant hydro pot farm and some of those buds did have a small amount of saliva dripping down my chin. Hehe
I do think this film will not be for everyone - it will hit huge with teenage boys, perhaps the females for James Franco although he isn't his pin up boy in this film and this is awesome for him. I also think stoners should get up off the couch and venture out for this one and while I say "DRUGS ARE BAD PEOPLE!!!!!" this film is PRO marijuana and had me thinking of having a few doobies, especially prior to the screening so I could be on level.
Trivia:
1) The source of inspiration for making Pineapple Express, according to producer Judd Apatow, was Brad Pitt's character in True Romance (1993), a stoner named Floyd - OMG, this is exactly what I thought so he hit on the money here!!. Apatow "thought it would be funny to make a movie in which you follow that character out of his apartment and watch him get chased by bad guys". According to Rogen, the ideal production budget was $40 million, but due to the subject matter—"because it's a weed movie", as he put it—Sony Pictures allotted $25 million.
2) David Gordon Green met with Apatow, Rogen and Goldberg on the set of Knocked Up, and later on the set of Superbad to discuss the project. Gordon cited The Blues Brothers, Midnight Run, Running Scared, and Stir Crazy as sources of inspiration and influence on directing the film.
3) Rogen was originally going to play the "stoner buddy" character of Saul Silver, but Apatow suggested that Franco should play Saul. After a table read, Rogen agreed, thus casting himself in the role of Dale Denton.
4) Seth Rogen spoke with musician Huey Lewis, of Huey Lewis and the News, on writing and performing the film's theme song in November 2007.
Music:
The soundtrack is brilliant and the music is superbly melded with the film.
Track Listing:
1. "Pineapple Express" – Huey Lewis and the News (4:27)
2. "Electric Avenue" – Eddy Grant (3:48)
3. "Dr. Greenthumb" – Cypress Hill (3:08)
4. "Lost at Birth" – Public Enemy (3:33)
5. "Poison" – Bell Biv DeVoe (4:20)
6. "Wanted Dread and Alive" – Peter Tosh (4:22)
7. "Don't Look Around" – Mountain (3:44)
8. "Pineapple Chase (aka The Reprise of the Phoenix)" – Graeme Revell (3:03)
9. "Bird's Lament" – Moondog & The London Saxophonic (2:02)
10. "Coconut Girl" – Brother Nolan (3:36)
11. "Hilawe" – Arthur Lyman (1:09)
12. "Tha Crossroads" – Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (3:45)
13. "Pineapple Fight" (aka "The Nemesis Proclaimed") – Graeme Revell (3:08)
14. "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You" – Spiritualized (5:12)
15. "Woke Up Laughing" – Robert Palmer (3:35)
While not everyone and while I enjoyed it I did want more and thought it could have had a bit more thought into it. Worth: $11-
DISCLAIMER: This author and NO ONE related in any way to Salty Popcorn suggests in any way that smoking marijuana prior to or during this film is a good thing. DRUGS ARE BAD and the effects of marijuana may have harmful effects on your mind and body.
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