Funny, but laking in plot and good acting from several characters

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2008)

This movie had a lot of good raunchy humor that gives people a laugh in almost every scene. Definitely, a good movie to watch with your friends and will make the day of even the most depressed of peoples. However, what prevented this movie with a lot of potential from being great was the weak story and weak acting from certain characters.
On the story, there were not any real moments when you feel that the characters learn something. There is one moment when one character seems to realize the bad direction this person's life is taking. However, this epitome comes so rushed and had little built on it. The character just snaps. However, even after this realization the character, and the others, have eventually, they don't seem to be truly acting upon it and whether or not they changed is left hanging in the air. This weakness was what make raunchy humored movies like "40 year-old virgin" and "Knocked up" great. In the first one we had an Andy who is so shy about women and how slowly his friends begin breaking his fear. Then, when he begins a relationship, you have good build up were he fights his insecurities until finally he falls in love and marries the woman. In "Knocked Up", the guy transitions throughout the entire movie from a pot smoking bum, to a responsible and sensible husband and father. We see this transition and build up in both of these movies. But we don't see that in "Pineapple Express". They simply wake up to that for a few seconds and they seem to go back. A good comedy is not just having a lot of laughs. It needs to have a strong plot and key dramatic moments that this movie did not have. It was a joke from start to finish.
On the acting, the only good acting came from Seth Rogen. He seemed believable and worked. I was disappointed in James Franco. He was just to cartoonish. The antagonist were even worse, especially the two gangsters. They were too ridiculous and cartoonish. In the mentioned movies, even the secondary and tertiary and most ridiculous characters, did not go that far. Many even had their dramatic moments and had some depth and reasoning to their way of being. But in this movie, none of that existed.
So, I recommend the movie because it is very funny. However, don't expect it to be great or as in-depth as comedies of similar manner like the mentioned movies.