Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pineapple Exress, 19 Nov 2008
The Plot
Part-time delivery man, part-time pot head Dale (Seth Rogan) is in trouble after witnessing a messy murder between two competing drug lords. He is traced by the killer (Gary Cole) - through the potent, pungent Pineapple Express marijuana - to his dealer Saul (James Franco), and the two go on the run, with the bad guys hot in pursuit.
The Review
The word `Broamnce', according to Urbandictionary.com is defined as `a non-sexual relationship between two men that are unusually close'. Although a relatively new word - from the same family as metrosexual and guyliner - it's been at the heart of buddy movies for many a year. From Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, to Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards in Top Gun, to Vince Vaughan and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers, all have relied on the chemistry between their two main leads to carry off the film.
In Pineapple Express, Seth Rogan and James Franco continue this time honoured tradition. At the start of the film, they're merely customer and supplier. But by the time the credits role, after they've endured a night in the forest, a high speed chase in a police-car, and a final show-down in a `pot factory', the two are in separable. The chemistry between Rogan and Franco is natural, unforced and makes the movie.
Rogan, as slacker Dale, is playing the same Fuzzy Bear type character become used to seeing him playing - the good hearted loafer, with a girlfriend way out his league. It's Franco who is the revelation, as after seeing him play it straight and scowly in Spiderman and....well almost everything else he's done, it's great to see him kicking back as pot-dealer Saul. He's not an aggressive drug-lord, but a contented middle man, who spends his days laying about in `sweats' (yes, a very American work) waiting for the money to roll in so he can look after his granny. The world which exists beyond his couch is strange and confusing, which makes trying to keep ahead of the bad guys all the funnier.
The plot, as you'd expect, is paper thin - guy witnesses murder and then as to keep ahead of the bad guys to keep his head. But it's the fact the two stoners don't have a clue what they're doing or where they're supposed to go that keeps the laughs coming. What do you do exactly once you've got in the car and started to drive?
In the final showdown, the film does lose its way slightly, morphing from buddy/stoner comedy into an action flick parody. Turning the two leads into gun toting action heroes isn't in keeping with the rest of the film, but as a parody, it's on a par with Hot Fuzz, with some gruesome and memorable deaths.
The Verdict
There are some good laughs, but it's the chemistry between Franco and Rogan that makes Pineapple Express better than your average comedy.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, 18 Jan 2009
Twice now I've seen this movie and I can't get past the fact that being stoned and talking about weed just isn't funny. Not on it's own. Someone ought to have told that to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, writers of the much funnier Superbad. What I see here is a pair of writers (and in Rogen, an already established bona fide star) following through with what they openly admit was a joke idea into an underwhelming and unsatisfying film. I use those words because almost every comedy thus far from the Apatow Express (how I loathe myself for saying that) has been exceptional entertainment, from the glorious heights of Superbad to the (relative) lows of Talladega Nights, and as such, I expected so much more from this.
Pineapple Express' problem is that its an indulgence; a weak idea propped up by a great deal of often hilarious dialogue, but no real plot to speak of. I mean, it has one, but its pants. It just meanders aimlessly and ends up in a barn which explodes. Watching the start of the film (with the first instance of pot non-humour coming from the usually dependable Bill Hader) there's no logical way you could have seen that coming.
Another in a now-long line of films that permit Rogen and buddies to fool around improvising on set, this time it doesn't work as well. A main problem is, like I said before, the stoner issue. I don't know if this kind of thing would make you laugh if you were one, but for the rest of us the first 25 minutes of this film are an almost unbearable watch, a life-to-screen translation of several inane conversations the writers are sure to have thought funny enough to put in a Hollywood picture. Quality control, please. The film's climax, in which it delves inexplicably into action territory, is also a weak point. The mid section however has a lot of what you pay to see; great lines, total idiots and James Franco driving a car with his foot through a window.
James Franco. Heterosexual males, it's fine to be gay for the 2 hours this film lasts. He's a gem. Franco + comedy = bliss. Not one line he has in this film didn't have me smile, at least. His crying on the swing is about the funniest thing of last year.
But when it's all said and done, particularly after the final scene, the whole thing just seems to be utterly pointless. Why did it happen? What's changed? Why does Saul like Dale at all if he's such a jerk? And he is, no doubt about it. Not questions I regularly ask of a film, but this one leaves me feeling empty. The kind of disc I'll stick on and flick through, but maybe not a film I'll watch all of again for quite some time.
Extras provide the usual; making of, a stunt featurette, the 'Line-o-rama' (always a joy) and several alternate scenes. Worth an extra few quid, as you'll get more laughs for your buck.
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9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shame on you Amazon. And Sony are no better, 15 Jan 2009
Hey there.
I haven't seen the film yet but I'm reviewing the digital download 2 disc version as a package rather than a film. Just wanted to make that clear. I know what you guys are like.
Anyways, I was hoping to watch this film on the plane on the way to the states. I thought to myself "hey a digital download version? fantastic! The X-files was great and dead easy to use. This should be too!". But no. This "digital download" is about as much use as tits on a kipper.
With the ipod being the must have piece of kit nowadays you would have thought Sony would have admitted defeat and made their digital downloads available to ipod or at least for mac users.
No.
Instead, they have only made this available to p.c. users (What's the point? You can use the dvd disc), PSP users (The 5 of you that are left on the planet) and PS3 users (Again, The DVD disc works!). This should really be stated in the description of the product.
So before you look at this and think "oh i haven't got enough films on my ipod. And that Seth Rogen guy is always making funny stoner movies" think again my friend.
THE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD WILL NOT WORK WITH YOUR IPOD.
There. Something amazon (and the DVD box) should have said from the start.
Love Ian
P.S. If for some reason you live in America and are reading this, ignore it. Sony made it work on your ipod. Brown nosers
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