Hunter Stephenson’s Movie Review: Pineap...
Hunter Stephenson’s Movie Review: Pineapple Express
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SexiVixxEN 12 days ago
Seth Rogen just got a free pass. I mean, a 9.5, CHUD? FirstShowing says Pineapple Express “breaks new ground” and implies that Rogen’s is the “best stoner comedy ever made.” I’m not really sure what movies one needs to zoom past to make the best stoner comedy of all time. It’s sort of like being the world champion at MAPPY in The King of Kong. More accurately, this might be the best stoner comedy by default, because it makes you wish you stayed home, packed a bowl and watched Caddyshack, or Fletch, one of the hazy ’80s 10.0 action-comedies this is aspiring to be. The first scenes with Rogen in PE are a pale if loving homage to that latter film’s classic aliases like Dr. Rosenpenis, likewise with the retro instrumental theme music.
Pineapple Express lacks the liquid-bowel laughs of last summer’s Superbad, which was also written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg. And remember the awesome fan-made Superbad: The Action Movie trailer we posted? That two-minute clip exuded the superior goofball tension and gunfire I expected when Seth Rogen expressed surprise at getting a greenlight for his exotic blend of inhales and mayhem. So, where the hell is this film’s totes memorable “exploding toilet”-like scene set to MIA’s “Paper Planes”? Where is “Paper Planes”? That song’s inclusion in the trailers undoubtedly netted this movie an extra $5-10 million, but it’s MIA. An argument against this review and in defense of the movie will be that “Well, it’s not that type of comedy” and “it’s not that type of action movie.” Therefore it’s not supposed to be really funny or really thrilling? And the reason for this is, “because it’s a stoner movie, OMG, it’s not supposed to be that good?” Okay.
Instead, the audience is served a party sub in which all of the dead and bloody stuff is unevenly packed into the last third; followed by endless amounts of lazy meta-improv between James Franco, Rogen and Danny McBride (who almost saves the movie) sitting on their self-gratified asses telling us how amazing the movie we just watched was. At least with the Judd Apatow-produced and much funnier, Step Brothers, Will Ferrell & Co. go out with a bang with a rock opera, some unclassic Billy Joel, and the affable phrase “Catalina Wine Mixer Motherfucker!” If PE is the new gold standard for American comedy as proclaimed by every glossy magazine this month, I’m going to go take a shit and read my collection of National Lampoon magazines for the next year like the black dude in Summer School.
CHUD says that James Franco deserves an Oscar nomination for Saul Silver. Why? For stealing Brad Pitt’s resin-torched laugh in True Romance and pronouncing the word “man” like it’s made out of taffy (or “God’s Vagina,” one of the only good lines here)? The chemistry and the bromance Franco and Rogen shared 10 years ago on Freaks and Geeks felt genuine and was far more impressive. Their aimless characters were similarly brought together by the randomness of life i.e. high school. Franco gives great performances in that series, and he’s consistently hilarious and inventive throughout. When his Freak apologized to Rogen’s Freak after making a joke at the expense of the latter’s tuba-playing girlfriend having a baby cock, viewers cried (many were high)! It was brilliant. When Rogen and Franco have their falling out in Pineapple Express, followed by a stilted apology, it doesn’t mean anything, even for a “lowbrow action comedy” in the spirit of Lethal Weapon or 48 Hours. Clearly, the filmmakers want and need us to be invested, but it plays like two kids with lobotomies walking in opposite directions after an argument. You could argue these characters are supposed to be exactly that (and you’d feel tainted), and you could argue that this describes many American moviegoers when they exit the theater (and you’d be right, or Hollywood Elsewhere).
In contrast, we believe that Harold and Kumar depend on each other because they’re both insecure about their futures, girls, unpredictable off-road trips, white people and NPH’s ecstasy habit. And they both really like good weed. Cheech and Chong are bonded by alliteration, road trips, stupidity, poverty, broads, and the carefree fuck-the-man fumes (nice dreams?) of the ’60s and ’70s. And they both really like good weed and blow. In Smiley Face, Anna Faris is the modern, funny but troubled girl (and all guys have dated one) who goes it solo, smokes herself out and simultaneously represents the answer and problem to everything today (which is why “that girl” tends to ultimately disappear or become a doctor or lawyer). Stoner comedies tend to reflect and subvert the day’s culture. Rather than subverting our culture, Pineapple Express blows it back at us, to the point where a promising indie director named David Gordon Green is being cheerleaded by critics for making a just-average crowd-pleaser and “adequately handling action.”
In place of the timeless comedic duo we expected from the “New Kings of Funny,” we’re offered a wannabe M. Fletch Fletcher and a talented actor who’s impersonating an actor playing a stoner and seems secretly bored. And why Rogen and Franco’s characters aren’t shot in the head by the film’s goons, nicely played by Kevin Corrigan (a great stoner in Freaks and Geeks) and Craig Robinson (The Office), before this overhyped comedy goes soggy Black Rain is a valid question not worth wasting good weed on. Sort of like Adam Sandler’s Bulletproof.
Pineapple Express lacks the liquid-bowel laughs of last summer’s Superbad, which was also written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg. And remember the awesome fan-made Superbad: The Action Movie trailer we posted? That two-minute clip exuded the superior goofball tension and gunfire I expected when Seth Rogen expressed surprise at getting a greenlight for his exotic blend of inhales and mayhem. So, where the hell is this film’s totes memorable “exploding toilet”-like scene set to MIA’s “Paper Planes”? Where is “Paper Planes”? That song’s inclusion in the trailers undoubtedly netted this movie an extra $5-10 million, but it’s MIA. An argument against this review and in defense of the movie will be that “Well, it’s not that type of comedy” and “it’s not that type of action movie.” Therefore it’s not supposed to be really funny or really thrilling? And the reason for this is, “because it’s a stoner movie, OMG, it’s not supposed to be that good?” Okay.
Instead, the audience is served a party sub in which all of the dead and bloody stuff is unevenly packed into the last third; followed by endless amounts of lazy meta-improv between James Franco, Rogen and Danny McBride (who almost saves the movie) sitting on their self-gratified asses telling us how amazing the movie we just watched was. At least with the Judd Apatow-produced and much funnier, Step Brothers, Will Ferrell & Co. go out with a bang with a rock opera, some unclassic Billy Joel, and the affable phrase “Catalina Wine Mixer Motherfucker!” If PE is the new gold standard for American comedy as proclaimed by every glossy magazine this month, I’m going to go take a shit and read my collection of National Lampoon magazines for the next year like the black dude in Summer School.
CHUD says that James Franco deserves an Oscar nomination for Saul Silver. Why? For stealing Brad Pitt’s resin-torched laugh in True Romance and pronouncing the word “man” like it’s made out of taffy (or “God’s Vagina,” one of the only good lines here)? The chemistry and the bromance Franco and Rogen shared 10 years ago on Freaks and Geeks felt genuine and was far more impressive. Their aimless characters were similarly brought together by the randomness of life i.e. high school. Franco gives great performances in that series, and he’s consistently hilarious and inventive throughout. When his Freak apologized to Rogen’s Freak after making a joke at the expense of the latter’s tuba-playing girlfriend having a baby cock, viewers cried (many were high)! It was brilliant. When Rogen and Franco have their falling out in Pineapple Express, followed by a stilted apology, it doesn’t mean anything, even for a “lowbrow action comedy” in the spirit of Lethal Weapon or 48 Hours. Clearly, the filmmakers want and need us to be invested, but it plays like two kids with lobotomies walking in opposite directions after an argument. You could argue these characters are supposed to be exactly that (and you’d feel tainted), and you could argue that this describes many American moviegoers when they exit the theater (and you’d be right, or Hollywood Elsewhere).
In contrast, we believe that Harold and Kumar depend on each other because they’re both insecure about their futures, girls, unpredictable off-road trips, white people and NPH’s ecstasy habit. And they both really like good weed. Cheech and Chong are bonded by alliteration, road trips, stupidity, poverty, broads, and the carefree fuck-the-man fumes (nice dreams?) of the ’60s and ’70s. And they both really like good weed and blow. In Smiley Face, Anna Faris is the modern, funny but troubled girl (and all guys have dated one) who goes it solo, smokes herself out and simultaneously represents the answer and problem to everything today (which is why “that girl” tends to ultimately disappear or become a doctor or lawyer). Stoner comedies tend to reflect and subvert the day’s culture. Rather than subverting our culture, Pineapple Express blows it back at us, to the point where a promising indie director named David Gordon Green is being cheerleaded by critics for making a just-average crowd-pleaser and “adequately handling action.”
In place of the timeless comedic duo we expected from the “New Kings of Funny,” we’re offered a wannabe M. Fletch Fletcher and a talented actor who’s impersonating an actor playing a stoner and seems secretly bored. And why Rogen and Franco’s characters aren’t shot in the head by the film’s goons, nicely played by Kevin Corrigan (a great stoner in Freaks and Geeks) and Craig Robinson (The Office), before this overhyped comedy goes soggy Black Rain is a valid question not worth wasting good weed on. Sort of like Adam Sandler’s Bulletproof.
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