Muddled plot and annoying characters. Truly a movie only a stoner could love (and they do).

Rating: 5/10 (30 August 2008)

Seth Rogen who has become a famous name attached the the Judd Appatow line of movies, has written another movie since Superbad (and the horrible Drillbit Taylor). As filthy and profane as Superbad is, this movie is rife with drug humor and stoner references, that everyone may understand, but only those who have experimented (most likely right before the movie started) in that area will belt out the most laughs. For me, the drug humor really wasn't that funny, and was just kind of dumb, the plot was all over the place, and the characters were obnoxious. Of course, amongst all these negatives, this was an enjoyable movie at times, but the good and the bad evened each other out to make nothing more than a dumb, average stoner comedy.
Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a normal working man, serving sepenas with a sense of humor. His two loves in life are his high school aged girlfriend, and pot. One night after buying a new, rare type of pot from his dealer Saul (James Franco), Dale is off to serve another sepena, and while at the house, he witnesses a murder. He drops his joint at the sight and drives off, hitting the murderers' cars. The first murderer is the head drug lord, and the second is Rosie Perez who for some reason is in this movie as a love interest (God knows why) and a corrupt cop. Dale and Saul end up going on a stoner trip to stop the drug lord and survive in the process.
The acting in this movie is quite good, and fitting for the stupid characters. Seth Rogen and James Franco know how to act like stoners. Perhaps they both are, for Rogen to write this and Franco to write the Ape. But nonetheless, they are the correct choices to play these bad characters. The fight scenes are shot well, so the camera direction is fine. It's the writing and characters that truly lack.
Like a child who has just drunk way too much caffeine, this movie is all over the place. The plot jumps from here to here to here, by the end it was as though I had just sat through an anthology of stoner stories, none of which were particularly enthralling. Many critics say the buddy comedy portion of the film is less enjoyable than the action. I partially agree. The buddy comedy parts, with Rogen, Franco and Danny McBride who plays Saul's dealer Red, were sometimes funny and sometimes irritating. The action scenes were more fast paced and fun to watch, but they always came on too quick and ended too soon. The movie's funniest moments come from the action scenes, including one scene where James Franco drives a car with his foot stuck in the glass of the front window. However, everything for this movie was a mixed bag and nothing ever fully worked.
Overall, this movie will appeal to stoners, because of how relateable it is, and some teenagers will enjoy the raunchy material, but to anyone else, this is just your dumb, average movie. Let me emphasize dumb.
My rating: ** out of ****. 110 mins. R for drug content, language and violence.