I went to see Pineapple Express tonight with my man & my bff Jen. Seriously, I was sold on the preview with James Franco (adorable always, and smart in real life) asking Seth Rogen (cute-like-a-wacky-cousin, or hotel security guard), whose character is a Process Server, "You're a servant? Like a butler?" Something about his delivery of that line made me say YES, I must see that movie. And I wasn't even stoned, swear.
The premise and ensuing action are, of course, completely & utterly absurd (see "Judd Apatow movies") but the movie clearly doesn't expect to be taken seriously - the opening scene is black & white footage of a pre-WWI study of the effects of marijuana in which a stoned soldier pantomimes a decidedly inappropriate act to his superior officer. Ridiculous yet hilarious, away we go.
The casting, even of the smaller roles, is inspired. Beyond the obvious choice of Seth as Everyman Dale and the more adventurous move making the usually serious [hottie] James our lovable Stoner Saul, Gary Cole ("Ahhh, I'm going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too") is deliciously smarmy as the Drug Lord Ted, Danny McBride is a scream as Middle Man dealer Red, and Dale's girlfriend's parents are Ed Begley, Jr. and Nora Dunn - brilliantly funny as Good Middle-Class People (though they both get to spiritedly drop the F-bomb a few times).
I could have done without the selling of weed to school kids, although all of them busting their breakdancing moves in slo-mo was pretty funny. But from my teacher point of view, I would have been kicking some stoner ass if I'd caught them. Overall, though, there were many comments made to the effect that pot smoking is really not the best avenue to greatness. It was pretty clear - like when watching any episode of Beavis & Butthead - that brain cells were being irretrievably spent with every toke.
In the end, it was a weirdly, awkwardly violent yet goofy-sweet buddy movie. I wanted to squeeze their cheeks then smack them all upside the head and sent them off for showers. Which I guess means it was a good time.
