Pineapple Express
Rated: R
There's so much in Pineapple Express that screams for it to be a comedy classic; not just of the stoner or buddy-comedy sub-genre, but a film that plays off its inspirations and ends up joining their ranks. Unfortunately, the comic brilliance of the film is constantly undermined by director David Gordon Green's mishandling of both the comedy and the action set-pieces. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) just found that the best marijuana is going to give him the worst day. While smoking up the new wonder weed Pineapple Express, Dale witnesses a murder. Panicking, he drops his roach in front of the killer's house and wouldn't you know it, the killer is the drug kingpin who's importing Pineapple Express and can perfectly track down Dale and his drug dealer Saul (James Franco) through shady middleman Red (Danny McBride). It's hard to tell if Pineapple Express is mocking the conventions of a man-on-the-run film by having the characters make tremendous leaps of logic in order to keep the chase going, but it's not a huge strike against the film. Where the film falters is that you have three comic geniuses—Rogen, Franco, and a breakthrough performance by McBride—and Green doesn't know how to shoot their comedy. Characters are constantly talking over each other and neither joke gets heard. Of course, even if a joke does manage to get through, Green refuses to hold even a second for laughter so for every one joke you enjoy, you're going to miss two or three. This may add to the replay value in catching jokes you missed the first time, but that's not really how it should work. I accept that some jokes are always going to get missed on a first viewing, but the amount of crushed-lines is pretty embarrassing. It's made even worse by off-screen responses. The approach works once (you've seen it in the trailer where Dale has to clarify that his amazement with Saul's mind is not a compliment) but mostly it feels like you're having one actor audition and the other read sides. And while I'm not an advocate for longer films, especially longer comedies, Express could really benefit from some added scenes between the talented supporting cast. I would have enjoyed some more character scenes between drug kingpin Ted Allen (Gary Cole) and his corrupt hench-policewoman Carol (Rosie Perez); between hitmen Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) and Matheson (Craig Robinson); between the members of the rival Chinese drug cartel. It's not that there are any scenes they should replace, but it feels like a waste of a lot of comic talent when you see these characters purely pushing along the plot rather than just getting to exist and banter like Dale and Saul. However, the cast deserves recognition for remaining steady even though the film they're in at the beginning doesn't resemble the one their in at the end. Pineapple Express starts out as a stoner comedy but by its third act, it's a full-blown action film. There's comedy throughout, but whereas the film loving embraces pot in the first half of the film, it almost completely forgets it by the time of the third-act climax. Green directs action slightly better than he directs comedy but sometimes he gets so brutal that you're more shocked than excited. Despite the comic talents of the cast, those looking for a summer comedy on par with previous Apatow-Rogen efforts like Knocked Up and Superbad will be sorely disappointed. The writing and performances are strong enough to survive Green's direction, but it's frustrating to watch a great comedy constantly pushed down below its true quality. Words by |