weed warriors
At heart, “Pineapple Express” is a simple buddy movie, relying primarily on the chemistry of its two stars. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a process server with a cannabis habit, disturbed by the attempts of his amiable drug dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), to make friends.
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Against his own best wishes Dale finds himself thrown together with Saul after accidentally becoming embroiled in a deadly war between local drug lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and the rival Asian gang. Inevitably, Dale and Saul must learn the value of true friendship against a background of escalating violence. With such a simple premise, it’s a shame that Rogen, producer Judd Apatow and Co. plumped for a straightforward action-comedy rather than attempting something darker and more complex. The first half is enjoyable without ever becoming truly memorable, although Franco delivers a great performance as Saul, the addict with a face of pure stoned benevolence. But Rogen’s rambling, improvised dialogue feels unnecessarily loose for what is essentially a linear plot without any real surprises, and, other than Ted Jones’s squabbling henchmen, the warring factions are granted a minimum amount of character development. As a result, the action that threatens to swamp the second half of the film is not interesting enough to balance the earlier, more intimate comic moments. “Pineapple Express” does make some attempt to treat the wider question of drug use, allowing Dale to remind Saul that cannabis caused them all this trouble in the first place, but this line is soon forgotten. Although the film is able to incorporate surprisingly graphic violence, the frivolous nature of its comedy prevents it from dealing with serious issues in anything but the most sanitized of forms. But then again, I don’t think that’s the point. “Pineapple Express” opens in Russia on Dec. 4. |
