Search This Blog

Saturday, August 09, 2008

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE: PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008)

Having largely enjoyed the previous Judd Apatow comedies, especially SUPERBAD, I went to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS expecting much more than I ended up getting. The tale of two stoners (Seth Rogen and James Franco) who get caught up in a shitstorm after one of them witnesses a cold-blooded drug war murder starts out amusingly enough, but by about forty minutes into it I began to lose interest and got up and walked out shortly before the one hour mark. I've certainly seen far worse films, but other than providing me with one or two laughs I felt the flick just sort of took up space on the screen, uninvolvingly unspooling to a climax that I just didn't care about. Seriously, I was totally confused by the uproarious laughter of the rest of the audience, and even if I'd been one tenth as baked as the characters in the film I doubt I would have found it any funnier than I did (or didn't). James Franco — Harry Osborn in the SPIDER-MAN movies — was terrific as the perpetually stoned weed dealer Saul and his line about the rare Pineapple Express weed being so good that it "smells like God's vagina" is an instant classic, but unfortunately that isn't enough to sustain a nearly two hour running time. Don't believe the hype and spend your ticket cash on something better, but if you feel you absolutely have to see PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, please TRUST YER BUNCHE and do the smart thing and wait for cable.

Seriously, I walked the fuck out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unrelated, but I figured you'd want to know:

50 Worst Album Covers Ever!

http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/red-worstalbumcovers-pg,0,1348740.photogallery

No, there are no Journey albums featured; the ones that ARE, however, could make your skin crawl off and run away!

Declan Shalvey said...

I love that kind of comedy (well, not reallt stoner kind) but i find these Apatow movies hugely over-rated. I found both Knocked up and Superbad pretty dissapointing. Not 'Bad' just not as good as i thought they'd be. They're all about 15 minutes too long as well.

I thought that Walk Hard was the best they've produced so far. Just my opinion tho.