"Pineapple Express" Pot-a-rific

Genres: Action/Adventure and Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.
Release Date: August 6th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing

Directed by: David Gordon Green

JJ Rating: B+

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) visits his dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) and gets a special kind of weed called Pineapple Express. He takes a hit and then took some to smoke for himself. He ends up seeing a murder and then drags Saul in and they run, run away from the bad, bad men. Pineapple Express.

James Franco was really great. He and Seth Rogen were actually a great pair. They played well together, but James Franco totally stole the entire film as the light headed, aloof and sometimes witty dealer.

The storyline was simple, run away from the bad guys and not get caught. As with most runaway don't catch me type movies there was a car chase scene. It was fun and thrilling and fast. You've seen the trailer a foot through the windshield is crazy stuff. Then there are the conversations that Franco and Rogen have. Franco is the calm A.D.D. conversationalist, while Rogen is the nervous diarrhea of the mouth guy. Craig Robinson (who plays Matheson) is the lying friend of Franco. He's a total flake, but a funny flake, one that would say anything just to get out of dying.

There's a scene where Franco and Rogen go back to Robinson's home and try to get information out of him. It ends up being a physical battle that has them knocking into walls, doors, toilets and the like. Franco and Rogen decide to go out into the middle of nowhere and try to hide, which only leads to them thinking about how they are being traced, which leads them to the cell phones and a scene that is pretty funny dealing with that diabolical.

It was just a good fun movie that was not a totally out there storyline like Harold and Kumar are with their pot laced tales. It was actually better grounded. Pineapple Express isn't one of those spectacular spectacles that are worth total price of admission (so go to an early show) but it was entertaining and funny and James Franco will totally surprise some people with his ability to be humorous and not so melodramatic, as it seems, as he was for the Spider-Man Trilogy. I personally didn't think he was, but there were those that did.

Pineapple Express is a fun movie. Wanna have a good time? See this movie. If you like pot themes you'll enjoy it. If you don't, then you wouldn't. But I don't even think pot is a smart thing to smoke, but oh well I found it every bit as entertaining as I think I was intended to and therefore state it's pot-a-rific.