Dogtown Wire

From the crazy and fertile mind of Seth Rogen comes “Pineapple Express”. This is another film to come out of the comedic film factory run by the prolific Judd Apatow. Rogen, who co-wrote and stars, has actually created a new genre of film, the druggie action flick. Seth Rogen plays Dale Denton, a mild-mannered process server. He smokes lots of dope which accounts for his seemingly placid demeanor.

Denton visits his dealer (nice comedic turn by James Franco) Saul Silver. Silver sells Denton some potent marijuana called pineapple express. While going to serve a subpoena on Ted Jones (Gary Cole) Denton witnesses Jones execute an Asian gentleman, who was sent by an Asian gang to take Jones out of the drug trade.

Denton, in his haste to leave the murder scene throws out his roach. What Denton doesn’t know is that Jones is the exclusive distributor of pineapple express. Jones takes one whiff of the roach and realizes what it is and who sells it.

You will never guess who the only dealer of pineapple express is, that’s right, good old Saul Silver.

Denton is hysterical so he goes back to Silver’s apartment. Once Denton realizes that they will come looking for Silver, they cut a hasty retreat.

It’s a good thing they do because just a few minutes later in walks Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) and Matheson (The Office’s Craig Robinson); they are Jones’s men who are looking to take out the witness and anyone else who knows.

This film is screwball comedy at its best. The actors and action careen all over the screen. Rogen and Franco make a great comedic team. The humor is coarse but extremely funny. While I knew that Rogen was a funny guy, it is good to see Franco take on a funny character. He plays the slightly dim and guileless dealer who is caught in the middle of a dangerous situation very well. Gary Cole shows once again that he does a great job in comedy. He plays scary and funny at the same time which is hard to do.

Danny McBride plays the seemingly indestructible Red, who was the wholesaler that sold pineapple express to Silver. The fight scene between Denton, Silver and Red was hilarious.

The only knock I have against the film was the subplot of Denton’s girlfriend Angie (the lovely Amber Heard). Although her first scene with Denton was funny, I felt like the rest of her subplot was unnecessary, and was only used to pad the length of the movie.

The film was directed by Arkansas native David Gordon Green. He is better known for art house fare (Snow Angels, Undertow) but this film shows that he can do mainstream comedy as well.

Green somehow keeps the action flowing and doesn’t stand too much in the way of Rogen and Franco’s interplay, which for me was what kept the movie grounded in a sort of crazy reality. They start off as just acquaintances, then become friends, then hate each other and finally realize that they really are friends.

The final action sequence between Jones’s crew, the Asian gang and Silver and Denton was a great sequence of fighting, crashing, stunts and somehow making Denton fly through the air with the greatest of ease.

Be forewarned that there is lots of coarse language and the main characters are “altered” throughout most of the film. But if you like the laughs to come at you in rapid fire motion, then you will enjoy this film. I might have to go back and see it a second time because there were several times that I was laughing so hard that I’m sure that I missed some jokes. Pineapple Express is currently playing at the Dickson Lakewood 8 in North Little Rock and Chenal 9 in west Little Rock.

Movie Maniac Rating: B+

Movie Rating: R – for lots of profanity, violence and drug use

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