January 2009 | blackfilm.com | reviews | film

HDVD Stoner Comedy Revolves around Slackers on the Run from Sadistic Gangsters

Typically, Marijuana movies revolve around a couple of spaced-out slackers on the run who end up embroiled in a series of madcap misadventures while stoned out of their minds. Whether they’re eluding the authorities, buying more pot, getting double-crossed by pushers, seeking sustenance to satisfy the munchies, or all of the above, the point of these otherwise pointless road pictures is simply to celebrate getting high and rebellion for rebellion’s sake.

Pineapple Express features Seth Rogen and James Franco as the latest duo endeavoring to generate a little chemistry while consuming cannabis. Just past the point of departure, we find 25 year-old Dale Denton (Rogen), a very inventive process server donning different costumes to serve subpoenas on unsuspecting defendants. After paying a visit to his teenage girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) at her high school, he stops by his dealer Saul’s (Franco) place to buy a quarter-pound of a potent new strain of pot called Pineapple Express.

High as a kite, he leaves to serve papers on Ted Jones (Gary Cole), and arrives just in time to witness the ruthless mob boss murder a member of a rival Asian gang. It’s not long before the killer sicks a couple of goons (Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan) on Dale, and what ensues is an ever-escalating display of outrageously violent antics which might best be described as the Three Stooges, only with guns and gore, oh, and lots of pot, too.

Sidesplitting, high attrition-rate, S&M slapstick where you get to savor the sight of characters getting tortured to death about five times each, if that’s your bag of grass. With memorable performances by Ed Begley, Jr. and Nora Dunn as Angie’s overprotective parents, and Danny R. McBride as a back-stabbing stool pigeon.