S P L I N T E R E D | L I G H T

Pineapple Express is unapologetically a stoner movie. The opening scene, which is totally unconnected to the rest of the movie, serves no purpose but to make this point crystal clear. Yet Pineapple Express is a stoner movie that wants to be Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, Boogie Nights, or maybe just a Coen brothers film. It is the story of two potheads promoted as an action-comedy. Dale (Seth Rogan) is leading a dead-end life, and his dealer, Saul (James Franco), is just hopeless. Pineapple Express is not really a parody of the above films, yet it certainly wants you to know it is referencing them. In a tense but absurd scene Dale nonchalantly states, “I’m calmer than you are,” and one character even screams, “What you do in life echoes in eternity,” as he delivers a kick to the crotch.

Where it does glimmer is that Seth Rogan and James Franco seemed like two real dudes, not movie stereotype stoners. Seth Rogan plays the character he always plays, but James Franco surprised me with a good turn in a generic role. They started the film not as buddies but as different breeds of stoners. In maybe the best scene of the film, Dale wants nothing but to get out of his aimless, clingy, time-suck-of-a-dealer’s apartment, but every little thing starts Saul musing and he finds it difficult to make an exit. Rogan co-wrote the screen-play with Evan Goldberg, and The dialogue in scenes like this is completely unpredictable and pitch-perfect. These two stoners are not clones of each other but a mismatched pair. When Dale witnesses a brutal killing and drops his roach fleeing the scene, the two of them fear the killers will trace the rare ‘pineapple express’ blend back to them. They seem to think that their dope connections operate like Miami in the ‘70s.

This is where things began to go amiss. In the escalation of the ‘drug war’ fueled by Dale and Saul’s misattempts to avoid death things just get a little ridiculous. The inclusion of corrupt cops and Korean cartels in swat gear takes the comedy away from the brilliant free association ramblings of Dale and Saul and makes it more of a comedy of spectacle and absurdity. This made the last third of the film into one big sigh. All the bigger because the first hour was pretty entertaining. I couldn’t help but think how brilliant the movie could have been if Dale and Saul went tearing around their city in a cloud of haze seeing hitmen and drug lords behind every parked car. The characters could have stayed central. The comedy would have stayed in the dialogue. Unfortunately Dale and Saul really are being chased by hitmen, a drug lord, and a corrupt cop. Part of what buries the third act is the insistence to turn Dale and Saul into a more typical stoner tag-team. They discover they are best friends and share the obligatory scene where to the viewer they appear to be doing the down and dirty.

This movie was funny, but funny alone doesn’t make a classic. I wish I could put my finger on that quality Pineapple Express lacks that makes The Big Lebowski worth countless rewatches. Indeed when Pineapple Express was at its best was when it most resembled a Coen’s film like The Big Lebowski or Raising Arizona. I do not think Pineapple Express will enter the ranks of classic stoner films, but it undoubtedly marks another solid comedy win for the Judd Apatow production house. This is a film with some genius scenes but ultimately little redeeming value.