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USA 2008
Directed by
David Gordon Green
111 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
3 stars

Pineapple Express

King of the stoner comedy, Seth Rogen, teams up with his Superbad co-writer, Evan Goldberg, in this story about a process server and chronic pot-head, Dale Denton (Rogen). On one of his jobs he sees a murder and ends up at the apartment of his dealer, Saul (James Franco).  The only problem is that in fleeing the scene he dropped a joint of awesome weed called Pineapple Express and the killer (Gary Cole) is a drug lord who knows that Saul is its sole local supplier. The pair go on the run with the killer in hot pursuit.

Pineapple Express is a buddy movie with Rogen and Franco working together easily as a kind of Stoned & Stoneder pairing, bumbling from one misadventure to another, well helped out by Danny McBride and a typically abrasive Rosie Perez.  Although the film does resolve itself in a rather too formulaic big showdown climax with lots of guns and exploding things and a sub-plot involving Dale’s girlfriend (Amber Heard) and her family simply evaporates, for the most part it is genially entertaining film smoothly helmed by highly regarded indie director, David Gordon Green, and like Superbad, the comedic material is imbued with a touching pathos that lifts it above the mean.

 

 

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