A Minor Classic Is Buried Beneath a Lot of Big Budget Hollywood Garbage

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2009)

How much you enjoy "Pineapple Express" may depend largely on how funny you think Seth Rogen is and/or how high you happen to be when you watch it. I wasn't high, and I think Seth Rogen has eked about as much mileage as he can out of his doofus schlub routine, so needless to say I didn't find this film to be an instant comedy classic.
There were plenty of moments that made me laugh, but usually they were the result of some minor and silly throw-away line of dialogue that felt improvised, making me want more of that. Which is why I was frustrated and rather depressed that most of the film consisted of hard-sell, aggressive gun/fistfights, car chases and other stock material normally found in buddy action movies. There's a hilarious and potentially classic addition to the stoner comedy buried somewhere within this bloated film that occasionally makes its appearance. But only occasionally.
And I wasn't prepared for how graphically violent the film was going to be. It tries to play all of this awful violence for laughs but doesn't succeed. The humor just feels queasy and uncomfortable instead of outrageous. Though I did receive quite a bit of catharsis from seeing Rosie Perez crushed by a car.
Grade: B