Cheech And Chong Redux...

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2009)

After hearing just about everyone I know gush about PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, I finally got around to watching it. Perhaps I waited too long, or perhaps I've seen another movie that leaves it in the dust. But, for whatever reason, there just wasn't much appeal for me.
The film I'm referring to that left Pineapple Express in the dust is none other than TROPIC THUNDER. Some might find the comparison unfair, but it really isn't. Both have that Jerry Bruckheimer-esquire action quality to them. Both bill themselves as heavy comedies. And both have plenty of star power. But Pineapple Express started out slow, building up steam before finally getting several guffaws out of me, while Tropic Thunder did it from the first moment the screen lit up.
More like a modernization of a Cheech and Chong flick, Pineapple Express shows the imbecility of the marijuana culture but does so by placing it within the vehicle of friendship. Seth Rogen (KNOCKED UP) stars as a 30-something-year-old loser Dale Denton who's job is that of a process server. And he's good at it. He could serve a summons on the pope if he had to. But he's also heavily into pot and gets it from his dealer-turned-buddy Saul Silver (James Franco, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH). Everything is going along fine (including Dale hooking up with an 18-year-old high school hottie) until he witnesses the murder of a Chinese man at the hands of drug lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole, TALLADEGA NIGHTS) and a female police officer (Rosie Perez). Troubles deepen as Dale becomes paranoid after smoking some of the new bud he'd purchased called Pineapple Express. Saul, his dealer, is the only one in the city who has the stuff, and when Dale panicked and left behind a roach after fleeing the scene of the murder, Ted figures out who the witness might be and sends a couple of thugs out to find him.
Dale and Saul flee for their lives, not that they were initially in danger, and into the woods, where they continue tokin' and eventually fall into a deep comatose state. When they awaken many hours later, they formulate a plan to find out if anyone is looking for them. They head out to Saul's distributor, a guy named Red (Danny R. McBride, TROPIC THUNDER) who initially tries to turn them in but later changes his karma and becomes practically immune to bullet holes.
Although there are some laugh-out-loud funny moments, they don't come until later in the film. One particularly funny scene involves Red crashing through a burning barn in a car, instantly killing a thug, and then jumping from the car and shooting the dead guys foot off. Both crude and grossly hysterical.
The ending is fairly anticlimactic with the stoned-out, burned-out, beat-up, and shot-up trio (Dale, Saul, and Red) sitting in a café waiting for a ride and sucking down food in a post-smoking haze. Not much to laugh about there. Perhaps I wasn't toked-up enough myself....