Seth Rogen reteams with his former “Freaks and Geeks” costar James Franco in “Pineapple Express” as a pair of men in a state of arrested development. Rogen plays Dale, a process server driving a car from the 1970s who realizes how much people hate his field of work. He seems to reluctantly enjoy his job, even though he is regarded as a social pariah as a result of it. Despite being an ace at his work, Dale does have some issues, not the least of which is his teenage girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard), who is pushing him to have dinner and meet her family. To deal with Angie and the drudgery of everyday life, he smokes copious amounts of pot, supplied to him by Saul (Franco).
Saul lives in a claustrophic apartment filled to the brim with the spoils of his successful dope dealing business. He seems to resent most of his customers but takes a real shine to Dale, despite the fact that Dale is barely cordial to him and thinks he is annoying. One day, he offers him a new type of pot called pineapple express, which is supposed to be the Cadillac of cannabis. The pair bond and get high off a ridiculously funny cross-shaped joint that takes two people to light and smoke. After this euphoric experience, they start to form a friendship despite Dale’s apprehensions.
One night, Dale is staking out the home of a man who he has to serve with papers. Instead, he witnesses a murder and his fright causes him to drop his pineapple express joint as he speeds away in his highly-conspicuous car. Crooked cop Carol (Rosie Perez) and the man she committed the murder with, Ted (Gary Cole), find the half-smoked joint and use it as evidence to find Dale, who unwittingly drags Saul into the drama. Ted knows good pot when he smells it and soon figures out that Saul is the exclusive dealer of this particular type in all of Los Angeles. Soon, the two goons are at his doorstep, trying to track down and murder Dale to eliminate the only witness to their crime. Chaos and tons of hilarity ensue as the stoner duo try to stay one step ahead of the goons and the cops. There is even a car chase that evolves into one of the funniest action sequences seen by viewers in quite some time.
Though Rogen is well-known for his comedy chops, co-star Franco didn’t become a public name until his star-making turn in a James Dean biopic. Though he has done comedy since then, he is largely known as a dramatic actor, so his turn as the eternally stoned Saul is a big surprise. He is so perfect in the role, audiences may begin to wonder if Franco was actually smoking pot during filming. With glazed eyes, slow speech, and thoughts that occasionally go nowhere, Saul is far from your average drug dealer. Like his cohort Dale, he is completely in over his head, which is where much of the laughs in the film come from.
“Pineapple Express” is the rare R-rated comedy that doesn’t rely on nude or half nude women to earn its rating. Sure, it got dinged by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for sexual references, but nothing explicit is ever shown on the screen. In fact, the romance between Dale and his teenage paramour doesn’t seem to have a sexual component, and intimacy is never implied or stated. Instead, the film gets its rating from cussing, plenty of pot smoking, and violence. However, the violence and even the drug use are mostly cartoonish, as if they would be at home on the pages of a comic book as much as the big screen.
On the surface, director David Gordon Green is an unlikely person to helm this film. His previous efforts include the superb indie dramas “Undertow” and “All the Real Girls.” He breaks free of the darker, more serious tones of those films to help make “Pineapple Express” a success. His effortless transition from high drama to stoner comedy may just put a bigger demand on him from Hollywood executives to begin directing more comedies. It would help if he was paired again with Rogen, who also co-wrote the hilarious screenplay. Until the two produce another film, “Pineapple Express” is a fine testament to the potential of this comedy team.