Giggly Ganja Glory

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2008)

2008 as a cinematic entity for this cinema viewer has been a been of a wash: a tidal wave of heavy sighs, restless shifts and paragraph after paragraph of vitriolic, disappointed criticism. My film partners and providers, my father and stepmother usually leave the theater feeling pleasant and entertained, while I emerge walking a bit more briskly because it was way too long, it was way too obvious, and I wanted to like it but, damnit, it just wasn't any good!! Pineapple Express opens with a dumb, obvious and unnecessary flashback starring Bill Hader, about the initial reasoning behind criminalizing marijuana, and those fears, that it would be just like the rest began to bubble up.
Then, the opening credits began to roll.
I'm not sure that there is anything genuinely funny in the entirety of Pineapple Express, and yet...for the life of me, I could not stop giggling. From the opening server montage up until about the necessary break-up scene, there were some concerns that I wasn't going to get enough oxygen to my brain, because I just didn't have TIME to breathe. The film follows a stoner process server (Seth Rogen) who, after witnessing a murder committed by a cop (Rosie Perez) and his dealer's dealer's dealer (Gary Cole), flees with his dealer (James Franco). Well, sort of. There are, of course, a flurry of unseen complications, almost wholly because they're completely baked. (The only reason they are tracked down is because they are literally the only men in town with a certain insanely potent strand of the sticky called "Pineapple Express".) My first question is, how the hell did David Gordon Green get involved in this? The director of ornate, somber and critically respected dramas like George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow and Snow Angels is the man that lensed this modern day stoner opus. I have to believe he's a partaker, that can be the only explanation, and I'd gladly welcome him to that brotherhood (of which I am but an honorary member; I smoked a few times in 7th grade, it had no effect on me, so I never did it again, yet people think I'm stoned all the time anyway, so I've deduced that it comes naturally to me. ) As for his direction, the film's more action-based aspirations makes this an absolutely essential addition to the squad; his hand is sure and makes scenes that could have been laughably inept, into believable and brutally hilarious bits of fight choreography.
This is not to say that these are tight, concise action sequences that will thrill and amaze you. Much of the film after the first hour is rambling, halfway incoherent and goes on way too long, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Considering the accomplished nature of its director, I have to believe this was deliberate. A buzz doesn't last forever, and you can feel the film coming down. Sometimes reality can come in and blow your buzz, especially if it comes with automatic weaponry, and the film reflects that to a 'T'. Every scene comes with an improvisational, wandering, incoherent and above all utterly BLOWN vibe to it, which impressed me with its accuracy and realism.
Of course, considering its star, the film should have no trouble with inebriated realism. While John Cho or Kal Penn may very well enjoy puffing on the cheeba, the Harold & Kumar series very much feels like the studio IDEA of what a stoner film should like like. As for PE, Seth Rogen is THC's most prominent cheerleader, and the substance's influence colors every frame of the film. I assume they saved money on an acting coach for James Franco, as he presumably had everything he needed right in front of him. For the rest of the cast, this looked like a fun set, filled with friends, buddies, That Guys and That Girls. I have a feeling Danny McBride just plays himself in every movie. Gary Cole gives his all despite his underdeveloped character, as the entire cast, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Rosie Perez, Ed Begley Jr., Nora Dunn, from top to bottom, a set I just would love to be on. I saw the adorable Amber Heard in the plodding crapfest Never Back Down earlier this week, and it's refreshing to see this charming little lady in a good film, even if her role resembles nothing more than a plot prop.
Overall, I'm just relishing the opportunity to not be the party-pooper in the theater, as I have seemingly disagreed with Everybody on Everything this year, with me always in the negative. It's my birthday on Monday, let my dad be the hater for once. I realize this review is rambling, halfway incoherent and goes on way too long, so I'm just gonna go ahead and claim that its structure is as deliberately ragged as the film's. I had a blast, I'm rockin' out, and...oh dear...I appear to have gotten my foot stuck in the windshield.
{Grade: 8.5/10 (B+) / #2 (of 63) of 2008}