Eventually, this comic romp becomes too close to the action movie it’s parodying. Until then, it’s a fairly inventive story of what could (probably not) happen if a couple of schlubs got mixed up with some bad dudes. Seth Rogen is the regular-Joe witness to a murder whose failure affinity for a rare marijuana strain—and failure to clean up his own stubs—gets him in trouble. Call it the telltale toke. Versatile James Franco is the addled dealer who bickers and buddies with Rogen’s more-sensible type. Both eventually get mistaken for some serious criminal types and interact with a motley assortment of dimwits and badasses.
Though helmed by David Gordon Green, director of the cerebral All the Real Girls and Snow Angels, the movie’s screenplay and story are by Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Judd Apatow, whose overlapping credits include Superbad and Knocked Up. On the spectrum of witty satire to slob comedy, Pineapple Express leans farther in the latter direction than those other two (Rogen’s slacker character is dating a high school girl), but still isn’t afraid to show its characters’ tender side (but he really loves her!), even as it winds up with them slaying henchman and running from some serious pyrotechnics.
IMDB link
viewed 8/28/08 at Moorestown; reviewed 1/19/09
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