One of the Greatest Stoner Film

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2009)

The Apatow crew have brought us the funniest film in 2008. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, their follow-up to 2007's "Superbad" is one of their best films so far. In the film, process server/pothead Dale Denton (Rogen) and his drug dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) must go on the run after Dale witnesses a local drug lord murdering the competition. The filmmakers have succeeded in creating the first great weed action/comedy, blending fun action with Rogen and Goldberg's usual style of comedy.
I continue to find Seth Rogen to be one of the funniest actors in modern movies. I've loved him in every movie I've seen him in with his goof-ball style and off-kilter improv. Considering I had only seen James Franco in his role in the Spider-Man franchise, I wasn't sure how to take his casting in an Apatow comedy. I thought he was pretty good in Raimi's films (well, except his villainous turn in the third...Franco should avoid bad guy roles), but I hadn't seen him do comedy. To my surprise, he was a perfect choice to play opposite Rogen. The two had great chemistry and I actually thought Franco outshone Rogen a bit in this film. I want to see Franco in more comedies! He really needs to become a regular in Apatow's crew in the future. Another shining spot in the film was Danny McBride as Red, Saul's supplier. I had seen McBride in the hilarious "Tropic Thunder" and the amusing (but less-than-stellar) "Hot Rod" and he is on par with Rogen as a great Hollywood funny-man. Toss in performances by the great Gary Cole and Apatow-regular Craig Robinson and this film's loaded with some hilarious people.
The film has the same low-brow brand of comedy as "Superbad" but it never gets stale. Rogen and Goldberg know how to do comedy better than a lot of other Hollywood writers out there, and now we know they can do action if they want to. There isn't a great deal of action in the movie but the few action scenes are great. One of my favorite sequences in the film is when Saul "saves" Dale when he believes he has been arrested by a corrupt cop, leading into a hilarious car chase. As I said, this is the funniest film of 2008 in my opinion and I'm really hoping it's success will continue to give Rogen and Goldberg the freedom to create the films they want. They haven't let me down yet.