Getting By DangerBy Getting High

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2008)

In the 1930s, when the United States government deemed marijuana illegal, low budget movie producers put out over-the-top, anti dope (yet subtlety pro-decadent) creeds like "Reefer Madness" and "Assassin Of Youth" to scare the crap out of Joe and Jane Rube, using cheap tactics. We today chuckle at these melodramas, along with modern day farces, featuring the likes of Cheech and Chong, Jay and Silent Bob (my favorite duo) and Harold and Kumar, all stoners or dealers who are in the most hysterical situations.
I can't say "Pineapple Express", the latest product from uber-comedy mastermind, Judd Apatow, is totally hysterical with its' bloody-letting gun plays, but I admire the film's heroes love of the chronic that keeps them from being killed.
If he's not serving subpoenas in disguise or hanging with his barely legal (18!) girlfriend at her high school, Dale Denton (the lovable, burly Seth Rogen who echoes Albert Brooks without a sweat) is getting high with his happy-go-lucky dealer Saul Silver (the surprisingly good James Franco of the Spiderman films), who's in the biz to support his grandmother as she lives in an retirement home.
They're good buds (!); Saul even gives Dale a sample of the title, a rare weed that was discontinued by the government in the 30s (more on that later). Dale's likes it, but, during a 'hit", he inadvertently sees a mob hit, committed by a nasty drug lord (Gary Cole of "Desperate Housewives") and a corrupt cop (a shamelessly slumming Rosie Perez) and leaves his blunt (weed cigarette) as a clue for the reprobates. Can our two social defects outrun and outwit (!) their bloodthirsty yet eccentric pursuers without taking a puff? Uhwhat was the question, again?
A favorite director in the indie film district, David Gordon Green ("All The Real Girls", "Undertow"), imbues the gonzo script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg ("Superbad") with frantic wackiness, homaging Quentin Tarantino, the Three Stooges and every average action film from the 1970s to the present. His cesspool swim will turn off his fans, but a man has to work, and Green's reliable.
Good friends since the short-lived "Freaks and Geeks" series, Rogen and Franco delightfully suffer from Peter Pan syndrome; their post-joint paranoia saves their butts, but they barely learn from their mistakes. Cole and Perez are odd as the lead villains, but better are their field operatives, played by Kevin Corrigan ("Grounded For Life") and Craig Robinson ("The Office", US version and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" with Rogen). Amber Heard ("North Country") is surprisingly mature as Rogen's gal, countering his immaturity. Ed Begley Jr. ("St. Elsewhere") and Nora Dunn ("Saturday Night Live") are goofy strict as Heard's parents.
Most interesting is Danny R. McBride (a stock actor of Green's, "Drillbitt Taylor", "Tropic Thunder") as Red, a two-faced associate of Saul's, who has the same invulnerability trait as Tim Roth's Mr. Orange from Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and spousal worries as Tarantino himself in "Pulp Fiction". Also memorable is the film's black and white prologue (using an old Columbia Pictures's torch lady stamp), where an Army test subject (Bill Hader of "SNL" and other Apatow works) gives a goofy, vulgar opinion about the military while stoned to a no-nonsense, Nick-Fury like colonel (character heavy James Remar of "48 Hrs" and "The Warriors"), who looks likes he's in dire need of a colon exam.
Though it's not filled with the socially responsible sweetness of past Apatow productions (Dale and Saul sell weed to a trio of foul-mouthed kids during their run), "Pineapple Express" is a nice reminder that raunchy comedies are like tree houses, occupied by boys. They don't have to have fancy curtains all the time.