Now that the 81st Academy Awards are behind us, we can spend this week examining a series of less… artistically celebrated films from 2008, which are now available on DVD. First up is the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express, co-starring Seth Rogen and James Franco—that is, Oscar-nominee James Franco.
Highlight: James Franco; foot-through-the-windscreen car chase
Lowlight: Gunfight in a warehouse
Overall rating: 2.5 seedy coners out of 5
Rest assured, Franco did not earn his Oscar nomination for his work in Pineapple Express, but for his role as the title character’s love interest in Milk. (Franco and the other nominees lost to the late Heath Ledger for his Dark Knight performance. Oscar viewers saw Franco and Rogen reprise their roles from Express during one of the movie montages.)
The set-up in Express is pretty direct: subpoena-server and chronic pot smoker Rogen witnesses a corrupt cop (Rosie Perez) and a drug kingpin (Gary Cole) commit a murder, and for various cannabis-related reasons he and his drug dealer (Franco) are quickly drawn into a war between rival criminal organizations.
In a broad and proudly dumb comedy like Express, Franco’s lonely low-level drug dealer stands out as the only character that seems like a real person, surrounded by buffoons of varying degree. This narco-preneur longs to make one meaningful social connection from his network of pothead clients, but realizes that as much as people might rely on their dealer, no one actually wants that kind of scum as their friend.
Franco is often quite funny here, and so are the buffoon squad (Rogen, Cole, The Office’s Craig Robertson, Danny McBride), but despite an inspired and goofy car chase, the fact is that the movie never gets over the paradox at the core of its concept: stoner movies aren’t supposed adrenaline-fueled thrill rides; if the stoners actually care about something (other than how to scorea bag of Doritos) they lose credibility as stoners.
The flick earns a couple of points for Franco, and for lingering on the brutal consequences of violence, even if it’s mostly for the chuckles. It earns half a point for poking at the social tensions between the economic middle class, lower class and underclass, and another half point for its take on male bonding in business relationships. Bro’mance plots in summer comedies are quickly wearing out their welcome, however, and the built up goodwill goes out the window when Pineapple Express climaxes with an extended gunfight in a warehouse.
“Gunfight in a warehouse” is well-recognized as cinematic shorthand for “I ran out of ideas but something has to fill the next twenty minutes.” I don’t mind watching characters who are high, but I generally prefer that the filmmakers weren’t totally blitzed while writing editing end of the movie.
