Pineapple Express

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2014)

Absurdly violent marijuana drug comedy about two dope-head losers (a process server and his goofy, easy-going dealer) who are on the run after Dale (Seth Rogan) sees cheeky drug-lord, Ted (Gary Cole) murder a rival drug dealer and heads to the abode of Saul (James Franco) wondering what to do considering what he seen. Ted has a cop girlfriend, Carol (Rose Perez), in with him, and they send out two gunmen (Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan) to take both Dale and Saul out. The film follows the duo's resistance to dying at the command of Ted and avoiding Carol (a dirty cop her peers are unaware of). Soon Dale and Saul meet up with fellow drug middle man, Red (Danny McBride, with a character that just won't die no manner how many times he's shot), and even Dale's own teenage girlfriend, Angie (hottie, Amber Heard, a joke the film plays to the hilt when she is compared to anti-hunk Rogen) and her family are endangered. You have two rival drug gangs (Cole and Koreans) getting involved in a blood feud, with Red finding himself unwittingly dragged into the misfortunes of Dale and Saul. Pot jokes abound and the violence is often so funny because it happens so clumsily and hap-hazardly. Rogen and Franco's chemistry has never been questioned and this film here seems to be their gold standard. A cast of great names turn up in small parts including Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn as Heard's bewildered and angered parents, puzzled at why their daughter would have anything to with Rogen. Cole, at this point, was having quite a career resurgence, adding this to his resume of comedy surprises like Office Space. This film is obscenely violent as drug wars have a tendency to be with the Rogen/Franco/McBride house-destroying slugfest and the climactic pot-underground decimation both prime examples using over-the-top displays of the damage that guns can do to the human body (what the characters don't do to themselves with whatever tools of violence can't be utilized such as a dirt devil, commode top, bong, fire extinguisher, and coffee pot). Startling still is the director of this film being David Gordon Green, known for his superior indie dramas like George Washington and All the Real Girls (and the underrated Undertow). The profanity, so consistent here, is very much a staple of Apatow comedies. The way the actors hurl themselves into their parts and letting it all go in the action is quite eyebrow-raising. Franco easily takes the film, though, I think, as I have always felt Rogen goes too overboard too often...Franco is the balance as McBride also is very much a Rogen comedy actor. How everyday characters find themselves in the crux of a bad situation produces the comedy results that makes this film work.