Seth Rogen has cut out a niche for himself. As he did with Knocked Up, he portrays a stumbling loser who is completely amoral and emotionally stagnant. He’s a lovable loser however because he knows he’s a lost cause and is able to find humor in his pathetic existence. Actually, his character in this film, Dale Denton, is almost exactly like his character Ben Stone from Knocked Up with the only exception is that he’s just a little more pathetic this time around. Dale is a bumbling part time process server, fulltime pothead. He has a lousy job, wastes his time smoking dope and hangs out with his girlfriend who is still in high school, he’s much older. After buying a new brand of pot that has hit town called Pineapple Express from his wheezing pot dealer Saul (James Franco) Dale witnesses local drug kingpin Ted (Gary Cole) murder a competitor. Dale and Saul spend the rest of the film being chased by Ted’s thugs. Essentially, this production attempts to combine a pot comedy like Up in Smoke or Half-Baked with the simple structured comedic action-adventure film like Hot Fuzz or The Blues Brothers. The combination is possible to pull off, but in this case it fails.

The film fails because it’s just not very funny. It is amusing in spots, but the script and performances lack any life. For most of the film there’s sarcastic interaction in place of wit, buttressed by sophomoric physical humor. Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad) avoid mining any humor from their scenes and stick to offering awkward juxtapositions instead. Everyone in the film is a softy, concerned about being friendly and not having their feelings hurt. Drug dealers are openly worried whether people like them or not. Hired killers complain they’re not spending enough time with their family. Characters capable of ruthlessly shooting people are easy to get misty eyed over insensitive remarks. These character contrasts are played over and over until they become wearisome. The entire cast literally acts like eleven year old boys deciding they’re going to be friends. While this may be amusing at first, it quickly loses its edge and it becomes clear Rogen and Goldberg don’t have any other tricks up their sleeve.

The final act of the film is a complete mess thanks to a lack of consistency. The final act revolves around a prolonged gunfight. This battle is rather violent. Is it way over the top, ala Tarantino? No, there isn’t too much here most audiences haven’t seen before. The issue with the final fight sequence is that it is starkly different from the previous portions of the film. There was violence in the first acts but the overall tone of the movie was still lighthearted and the violence was displayed within that frame. The final act removes the humor and tries to portray itself as a full out action movie. Director David Gordon Green mishandles this transformation and ends up delivering a nonsensical flurry of guns and death. Given the half-man losers he has as his heroes, this transformation is also lacking any logic. You can't say the hero is a pothead dolt who is sent into a panic because he’s scared of being a dark woods alone and then have him magically discover the internal fortitude to single-handily attack a gang of drug runners. It doesn’t work.

To sum up, if you are lacking any standards and pretty much thoughtlessly consume whatever comes down the pipe, you’ll probably enjoy yourself with this film. If you’re a little more discerning, say by wanting actual jokes or at least something clever, you’re out of luck. This is a very predictable and unoriginal film. Yes, there’s not that many pothead action films out there, but you’ve seen these characters and situations under different name a hundred times before.



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Labels: comedy, Danny McBride, drugs, film, Gary Cole, James Franco, movie review, Seth Rogen