Pineapple Express – 3 out of 5
I saw Pineapple Express when it first came out in 2008 in the theaters. At the time, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Joe Rogen but the trailer looked amusing. Sadly, I walked out not really caring for it and only found trivial bits amusing. As I grow older, my tastes in films change and I often like to revisit features to see if my evolution has effected how I view certain films. Did features I love become something I can’t stand or did something I never appreciated become something I actually now enjoy? Well, in this case, it turns out I enjoyed this one a little more this time around. I won’t go as far as to say I loved it but I realized it is funnier than I thought the first time around.
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| I'm just putting this here because it is fitting that I am revisiting this movie because... I seent it. |
Process server Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) accidentally witnesses a man named Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and a police officer (Rosie Perez) murder a man. He flees the scene but not before dumping a joint he bought from his weed dealer Saul Silver (James Franco). The problem is the weed is a rare strain called Pineapple Express and Ted knows Saul sells it. Ted sends his henchmen; Matheson (Craig Robinson) and Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) to find them and now Saul and Dale are fleeing for their lives.
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| And cue Rogen's trademark laugh. |
I kinda have mixed feelings towards stoner comedies. Too often they come off as gratuitous to me and I don’t find them funny. I’m a fan of marijuana and the legalization of it as a recreational substance and, while I might not be a dedicated smoker currently, I have been a weed partaker in the past. In the same sense that a person who likes alcohol can find obnoxious drunks irritating is how I feel about obnoxious stoners. Too often stoner comedies lean too hard in the weed jokes and it makes the whole product feel forced. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, and Pineapple Express is that to an extent. It’s definitely funnier than I ever gave it credit for and it skirts the line of being one of those gratuitous stoner comedies that I find more grating than humorous but it does have a major issue with its story and can often times come off like it doesn’t know where it wants to go.
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| In 2008, we had no clue that this man would one day play Tommy Wiseau. |
While the tale feels straight forward enough there was one element that felt tacked on and like it didn’t belong. The film opens in the late 30s in a bunker where the military is testing the effects of marijuana. This scene is amusing because the stoner soldier test subject is played by Bill Hader but the scene really serves no purpose beyond it showing the film’s reality of why marijuana is illegal and that the bunker is later Ted Jone’s lair where he operates his business. In the grand scheme of the whole story, this aspect feels unnecessary as it essentially looks like it will play a major role but, like a pothead trying to find their keys so they can get to Taco Bell before they are distracted by something else, it ends up feeling like it is forgotten about. This is also felt in the strain called Pineapple Express as a few moments make it feel like this might be incredibly important beyond just being used as a plot device for the murders to find Dale and Saul but it sorta fades away not long after it is established. In the most basic sense, you understand the point of these but, in the end, it felt like they weren't developed enough and the film could have easily existed without this element because two stoners running away from murderers works effectively enough.
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| Hader is a treasure, guys! |
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| Sure, Rogen and Franco were a great duo in this one but Corrigan and Robinson were pretty awesome themselves. |
In 2008, I was several years out of college, working in the radio industry and making my way as a standup comic. It was in these years I was a bit of a snob when it came to entertainment and I found I hated things with more enthusiasm than a person should. In that time I’ve flipped it and spend an enormous amount of energy loving the things that bring me joy and having no real strong reaction to things that don’t. However, because of this old thinking and the fact I wasn’t a fan of Seth Rogen at the time (I’ve turned that around too and now find him endlessly entertaining), I feel I judged Pineapple Express too harshly. I won’t make the argument that this was an uproarious comedy for me during this revisit as some bits fell flat for me and some did not age well but I definitely found I appreciate more of the comedy this time around. Rogen and Franco have excellent chemistry together and make a lot of their scenes work on that alone, Corrigan and Robinson are fantastic as Ted Jone’s henchmen and have a lot of memorable moments and Danny McBride is utterly fantastic as the dealer Red who ends up getting caught up in the nonsense and takes a righteous beating through the movie.
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| That's right, laugh even though you're messed up. This is basically a visual representation of my life. |
It’s always a roll of the dice when I revisit films years after I originally seen them. However, like a stoner, I’ve mellowed out with my feelings towards media since I’ve seen Pineapple Express and found that I liked this one more than the first time I checked it out. It definitely isn’t going to become something I’ll watch a lot because, while I did find it funnier this time around, I didn’t find it to be a memorable comedy that has a lot of quotable scenes and moments. That being said, I still think I judged this one too harshly and definitely seen the entertainment value in it this time around.
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