Not quite on the level.

Rating: 6/10 (12 August 2008)

I'll be honest; I've only seen one Apatow comedy and that would be earlier this year with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. That was funny, raunchy and yet had a sweet romance to it and some interesting points on relationships. Here we have a stoner comedy with a lot of pot and a lot of violence all mixed together. Seth Rogen and James Franco play a buyer and a dealer respectively, who go on the run after Rogen witnesses a murder. All plot points aside, they end up in a huge drug war that made me think of what caused the aftermath in No Country for Old Men.
To be honest, this wasn't my type of movie and for that reason alone I should not have gone to see it. Don't get me wrong, I laughed many times especially when Franco is talking about the beauty of his rare marijuana, Pineapple Express. Still, I cannot and will not condone the type of behavior that goes on in this story. It really all comes down to a bunch of crazy, greedy, stoned people who end up going at each other with guns. The first half is very high and the second half is very violent. These two don't mix very well and the result is rather distasteful. As good as Franco and Rogen are, I cannot recommend this due to its excessively violent nature and realistic tone. Yes, it's only a movie and should be treated as such. However, it feels so real you wonder if this actually happened or the characters were really high.