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The Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow rep company scored a near bullseye with 2008's Pineapple Express, an overly-complex, but raunchy stoner movie that provides major laughs and presents funny yet believable characters just barely within the realm of reality.
Seth Rogen stars as the perpetually stoned Dale Denton, a process server who ends up going on the run with his pot dealer (James Franco) after witnessing a murder while smoking a joint.
Rogen and co-screenwriter Evan David Goldberg had a solid comic nucleus with this simple story and actors, but Rogen and Goldberg throw in some underdeveloped subplots involving Dale's sexual relationship with a high school student and the history behind an alleged drug empire, which included experiments on a new strain of marijuana, evidenced here in a hilarious cameo by former SNL cast member Bill Hader as the guinea pig.
Despite a story that is a little hard to follow at times and the accustomed overlength for this rep company, the actors deliver the goods for the most part. Rogen actually seems a little reined in so that James Franco could garner the majority of the laughs in an over-the-top characterization that practically steals the movie. Gary Cole and Rosie Perez score as the villains of the piece and there' a big score from Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn as Dale's girlfriend's parents,
Rogen and Goldberg got it right for the most part here, I just wish they hadn't thought about it so much. 7.5/10
The Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow rep company scored a near bullseye with 2008's Pineapple Express, an overly-complex, but raunchy stoner movie that provides major laughs and presents funny yet believable characters just barely within the realm of reality.
Seth Rogen stars as the perpetually stoned Dale Denton, a process server who ends up going on the run with his pot dealer (James Franco) after witnessing a murder while smoking a joint.
Rogen and co-screenwriter Evan David Goldberg had a solid comic nucleus with this simple story and actors, but Rogen and Goldberg throw in some underdeveloped subplots involving Dale's sexual relationship with a high school student and the history behind an alleged drug empire, which included experiments on a new strain of marijuana, evidenced here in a hilarious cameo by former SNL cast member Bill Hader as the guinea pig.
Despite a story that is a little hard to follow at times and the accustomed overlength for this rep company, the actors deliver the goods for the most part. Rogen actually seems a little reined in so that James Franco could garner the majority of the laughs in an over-the-top characterization that practically steals the movie. Gary Cole and Rosie Perez score as the villains of the piece and there' a big score from Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn as Dale's girlfriend's parents,
Rogen and Goldberg got it right for the most part here, I just wish they hadn't thought about it so much. 7.5/10