About

They watched True Romance and wondered what would happen if Brad Pit’s stoner character was the focus of that film. From that little ‘what if?’ question, the idea for Pineapple Express was born. Two members of Apatow’s pack – Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – crafted the screenplay, which was very loosely used in the film, and came up with a new stoner comedy (one that doesn’t involve those Harold & Kumar dudes). Pineapple Express is dopey fun with its pot jokes and lowbrow humor, and the film’s target audience should walk away feeling pretty high about this crazy action comedy from the Apatow crew.

The Story

Seth Rogen plays process server Dale Denton, a man of many disguises who loves the gotcha moments when an unsuspecting doctor or husband or whoever finds his or herself on the receiving end of a Dale-delivered subpoena, Dales’ not bad at his job, he’s got a pretty 18 year old high school senior (Amber Heard) as a girlfriend, and his pot dealer, Saul (James Franco), keeps him well supplied with weed.

However, Dale’s sweet life turns sour when Saul offers him a new strain of pot named Pineapple Express. It’s the best weed on the planet and very rare. So rare that when Dale witnesses a lady cop (Rosie Perez) and one of the city’s major drug dealers (Gary Cole) – a guy Dale was casing in order to subpoena – murdering someone, he’s identified by the killers by the joint he tossed out of the car window when trying to flee the scene.

Unable to fully understand what he’s just seen. Dale finds himself at a total loss as to where to turn. He’s high, he’s just seen a stranger shot to death in front of his very stoned eyes, and now he’s scared out of his drug-addled mind. So where does he run to? His friendly neighborhood pot dealer, of course.

After wiping the drug haze from Saul’s eyes by explaining the ultra-serious nature of their predicament, the two hit the road without a plan but with large amounts of pot and a handful of munchies Car chases and lots of physical comedy antics ensue as the bad guys try to snuff the life out of the pot-smoking duo. As the net tightens, Saul and Dale transform from bumbling stoners into bumbling action heroes who discover the importance of friendship. Ahhh, how sweet!

The Bottom Line

It’s actually surprising just how much of an action movie Pineapple Express turned out to be. Based on the clips and trailers, you’d think all Rogen and Franco do is smoke pot, talk about smoking pot, or get ready to smoke pot. And there is a lot of pot smoking in Pineapple Express – it drives the comedy – but as with most Apatow comedies, there’s also a lot of touching male bonding rolled into the mix.

Pineapple Express works because it’s funny without being preachy and over-the-top without being ridiculous – even when Rogen and Franco grab machine guns and go all commando on the bad guys. Pineapple Express also works because of the natural-feeling interplay between Rogen and Franco. A lot of that has to do with their improvising much of the dialogue, but It’s also due to the direction of David Gordon Green (Snow Angels) who tackles his first big-budget studio comedy with Pineapple Express.

On a scale of Apatow movies, I’d rank Pineapple Express well below Knocked Up but just slightly below Superbad, and a step above Step Brothers. But your enjoyment of it is really going to depend on your tolerance for pot humor (not to be confused with potty humor) and your ability to just completely suppress any urge to apply logic to the storyline. And for those of you wondering, you definitely don’t have to be high to enjoy a trip on the Pineapple Express.