'Express' ride deals some laughs

Published: August 6, 2008

Despite their chronic condition, Cheech and Chong weren't exactly aiming high; they were midnight movie fare for people who were halfway to a laugh before the joke. While "Pineapple Express” owes a deep debt to their movies, it earns its laughs fair and square. Clear-eyed and tack-sharp audiences with a taste for the willfully stupid should enjoy it as much as sedated ones.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a perpetually impaired process server roaming Los Angeles in a beater sedan, dropping lawsuits on unsuspecting professionals. It's the perfect job for a creature of leisure — he spends time between assignments placing calls to radio talk shows and getting roasted on fat, illegal cigarettes. A true connoisseur, Dale is treated to the titular cannabis variety by his dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), a shaggy puppy dog of a guy with the memory of a gnat. But then things go deeply wrong.

While serving his last process of the day, Dale witnesses a murder being committed by drug kingpin Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and a crooked cop (Rosie Perez). Dale flees the scene but leaves evidence that leads directly to Saul, and hit men are dispatched to take out Dale and his dealer. What proceeds is a whack-job misadventure filled with dumb strategy, massive injuries and a climactic blowout in a secret military lab.

"Pineapple Express” thrives on the kinetic direction of David Gordon Green, best known for subdued and sensitive dramas such as "All the Real Girls” and "Snow Angels,” and the wits of writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the post-adolescents who sent "Superbad” to save the high school geek comedy. But beyond Rogen's bearish persona, amusing performances abound to deliver the goods. Franco, who got his start with Rogen in Judd Apatow's "Freaks and Geeks,” is the heart and soul of "Pineapple Express,” playing Saul as a sweet guy who loves his grandma but often forgets what he just said to her.

The film's secret weapon is a great supporting cast including budding comedy star Danny McBride as Red, a shifty dealer hopped up on goofballs, and a wild-eyed and foul-mouthed performance by Ed Begley Jr. as the father of Dale's teenage girlfriend. "Pineapple Express” gets flabby and shiftless in the third act — after such an unusually funny and warm wallow in bad behavior, it must have needed a nap. But thanks to a cast and crew having too much fun to be legal, "Pineapple Express” maintains good vibes.

— George Lang

Comments