Awesome.
Pineapple Express is not a comedy for everyone, but as an all-time fan of stoner comedies like Harold and Kumar, Grandma's Boy, and especially Half Baked, this one really takes the cake for me. Not only that, but it gives us some of the best buddy action comedy stylings since the 80's when Eddie Murphy was rolling around with Judge Reinhold.
The genius of the movie is really that it makes fun of the genres it is representing while also respecting the hell out of them to the point it becomes a great example of them. Plus, Seth Rogen implements the things that he loves putting in his scripts - friendship, bro's over everyone, and carrying people out of precarious situations.
All of that, and it's pretty hilarious too (and features pretty much the most funny/awesome fights I've seen in a long time). Any movie that can make jokes about imitating what drug dealer life is to get by (has to get into his persona you know), Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and the crushing reality of a younger person wanting to get married too fast in the same act gets my vote of confidence.
And it features three incredibly awesome performances (there were a number of great supporting roles as well), two from the prodigious talents from Freaks and Geeks University (Seth Rogen and James Franco, taking stoner movie conversations to simultaneous new highs and lows) and a third from Danny McBride, playing the third in their fearsome triumvriate of BFF's.
McBride is the character in the 80's buddy action comedy that should die, but always seems to make it out of even the most precarious situations. Quite often it's the situation he is in that makes it hilarious, but the way he pulls it off so straight faced and so "of course I made it" is a training video on subtle humor.
To be fair, it isn't without it's flaws. Going in, I was pretty much in love with the movie's redband trailer. While there were many other funny parts, a lot of the major parts were already spoiled by it. Not only that, but the movie itself flowed better as a trailer than it did as a full motion picture. Some things likely could have been left on the editing floor, and I did get restless a number of times during it's near 2 hour timeframe.
Those are not crimes however, and any movie that can make me laugh as often as this one did gets a bit of leeway when it runs long. Kudos to David Gordon Green on making the bold transition from straight arthouse dramas to stoner buddy action comedies. It's quite the leap and most wouldn't handle it well, but you took it with great aplomb. Kudos to you sir, and to all those involved with the making of this movie.
