Thursday, August 07, 2008
A+E, In this Issue..., Movies, Reviews

Wasted trip

Half-baked ‘Pineapple Express’ delivers a mild buzz

BY STEVE WARREN

The next time someone starts ranting about what a great decade the ’70s was for movies, remind them there were bad movies made then, too. For an example, you need go back no further than “Pineapple Express,” the worst “‘70s movie” of 2008.

Admittedly, much of the preview audience for “Pineapple Express” laughed loud and long, especially at an early scene in which Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and Saul Silver (James Franco) toke on a joint and start coughing uncontrollably. If that’s your idea of comedy, this is the movie for you.

Besides being a stoner comedy and a grindhouse drug-war flick, “Pineapple Express” is, to use a word coined in the script, a “bromosexual” love story between a man and his dealer. Soon after we see Dale explaining how he hates when your drug dealer pretends to be your friend, he’s getting chummy with his own supplier, Saul, who sells him an exclusive new brand of marijuana called Pineapple Express.

The highly potent weed comes back to haunt Dale, who goes to serve a subpoena on Ted (Gary Cole), who happens to be a drug lord. Dale arrives just in time to witness Ted killing a member of a rival Asian syndicate, with the help of a crooked cop (Rosie Perez, totally wasted, and not in the drug sense). Dale flees, dropping a Pineapple Express roach Ted traces back to him and Saul by way of his middleman, Red (Danny McBride, showing the same bland lack of promise he did in “The Foot Fist Way”).

From then on it’s mostly chasing and fighting and shooting, and an embarrassing meeting with the parents (Ed Begley Jr., Nora Dunn) of Dale’s high-school girlfriend (Amber Heard). The film displays a few comic touches, but too often there’s not even the slightest trace of irony.

A ’70s-style car chase has one hilarious, original twist, but is mostly just silly. The climactic shootout isn’t even silly, just something out of a bad B-movie. Despite all the gunfire the greatest danger to our heroes is their own stupidity. Since even mortal injuries only slow them down a little, it’s hard to worry much about what happens to them, even in the final scene, which resolves the platonic triangle that has Saul torn between his brotherly love for both Dale and Red.

Rogen and his “Superbad” writing partner, Evan Goldberg, with a story assist from producer Judd Apatow, stumble badly this time out. Perhaps most surprising is that the director is indie darling David Gordon Green (“Snow Angels,” “All the Real Girls”), making his first big studio picture, but making it look small. Regardless, even if it flops, it will earn more this weekend than Green’s four previous features did in their entire runs, and his salary will probably finance another personal indie film or two.

When it comes to stoner comedies, you can’t beat Cheech & Chong’s “Up in Smoke” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.” “Pineapple Express” isn’t anywhere near their league. Good for only a couple of big laughs, it’ll leave you with a mild buzz, craving a better movie to snack on. 2 STARS