Julian RuncanPineapple Express: Not Fast Enough
March 10th 2010 14:36
I wanted to like Pineapple Express, I really did. The cast was pretty good, James Franco was phenomenal, but the whole movie never really felt like it took off. I had the same feeling when I saw Shoot 'Em Up, these types of genre-comedies have a knack for dragging certain jokes or gimmicks on far too long.
There are some excellent scenes and dialogue throughout the movie, but they are peppered in with a lot of jokes that fall flat, or have just been overused in the trailers. It's pretty obvious what the movie is trying to do, and it succeeds in some parts, but the characters don't ever reach a consensus in tone.
James Franco, Danny McBride, and the goons play their characters as over the top and silly; Seth Rogan plays his character as Seth Rogan; and Rosie Perez and Gary Cole play their characters far too straight, but still not convincingly, resulting in main antagonists that are neither menacing nor funny.
Seth Rogan wanted to follow up Superbad by writing a pot-comedy, and got many jobs half-done in the process. Some of the funny parts really are funny, but most of the action is quite boring and you get the impression that the whole concept would have been much better by playing everything up and avoiding the half-hearted attempts at genre-mixing.
If it's on it's a fun way to waste some time, but Pineapple Express misses the mark on joining the ranks of other classic pot-comedies.
6.5/10
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