SCHOOL OF FILM & ACTING

Pineapple Express Can’t Derail Batman

If any film was going to knock The Dark Knight from it’s perch atop the box office this week, it was most certainly going to be the Stoner Action/Comedy on Pineapple Express. While the Judd Apatow produced feature came close with $23.2 million, Batman continued to soar above expectations and ever closer to $500 Million by reeling in another 26.1 big ones. Maybe the James Franco-Seth Rogen feature would’ve fared better, if like The Dark Knight it had been playing in IMAX theaters as well. I could certainly see that appealing to the stoner crowd, an action comedy of epic proportions coming at them larger than life…whoa.

After taking in the film over the weekend I can certainly say there’s a market for it. While I didn’t enjoy the film as much as some of Apatow’s other efforts, namely Superbad, Knocked Up, and The 40 Year Old Virgin; but maybe those aren’t fair comparisons. This was a different kind of comedy. Sure there was a decent amount of pot smoke in some of those other flicks but there was something refreshingly unique about Pineapple Express. It was that rare occasion where excellent comedic chemistry is combined with a fierce action pace…maybe not quite at the level where Simon Pegg nailed it with Hot Fuzz…but the far-fetched action plot elements were well balanced by moments of wham/bam action and a measure of reality in the dialogue…whether a captor was alerting his two hostages that he could hear them planning their escape through the shoddy warehouse wall or whether Rogen is trying to escape the clutches of friendship with an overly friendly pot dealer. I can’t say we’ve all been through those situations before, but thanks to Pineapple Express you get the feeling that’s how it would go down if you were to. It’s a dose of reality in the midst of the fantastical. Reality aside the film certainly has it’s absurd moments…I think the body count borders on Rambo numbers, but already given the basis of being a comedy you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief with Franco’s Characters’ ability to depose of a police officer and handle a “high” speed chase. While the Pineapple Express is no Citizen Kane…and not even Airplane!…it’s certainly a pretty good way to spend a day at the movies.

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