Pineapple Express
I have a soft spot for stoner comedies: Half-Baked and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, as well their Next Movie, were relics from my college years. Although I’ve long since outgrown the activities in which those characters were engaged, I still get a kick out of watching them from my couch. Pineapple Express combines that genre with action. And…it’s a pro-single movie from an unexpected source, singlist Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, King of Staten Island).
Apatow regular plays Seth Rogen, pothead, process server, and kinduva creep (he’s a 20something who dates a high school girl). His pot dealer is Saul, played by fellow Freaks and Geeks alum (and real-life kinduva creep) James Franco. Saul introduces Dale to a new strain of bud, Pineapple Express. While delivering a summons to a drug dealer named Ted (played by Gary Cole, known for his kinduva creepy Bill Lumbergh role), Dale witnesses him murder a rival gangster. Freaked out, Dale drives away, but not before throwing a roach containing the titular strand of weed.
The kicker: Pineapple Express hasn’t been distributed, and through some detective work, Ted sends his minions to track down Dale and Saul, who spend most of the movie fleeing before they arm themselves and get into a super-violent shootout with Ted’s gang, which includes a corrupt police officer played by Rosie Perez.
I’m a little torn on the movie itself. The first half is hilarious, largely thanks to Franco (who I just learned was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance). But the second is mostly gunfire and explosions. That said, it gets the pro-single nod here:
1)This movie is foursquare in favor of friendship. Dale and Saul become close, and they add a third person, Red, who had initially ratted them out to the dealers, but later became their ally. The last scene takes place in a diner, where they profess their love for each other (“I Love You Man”).
2)Dale dumps Angie, his adolescent girlfriend, during that Dark Night of the Soul moment, after he and Saul have a fight required in the formulas of so many romcoms.
3)Red, at one point during the journey, is reluctant to fight the dealers, saying he wants to go home to his wife, who’s just gotten out of prison. Later, he relents, saying “bros before hos.” The sexism in that statement is problematic, but it’s pro-friendship.
4)One of the dealer’s henchmen, played by Kevin Corrigan, complains how he hasn’t seen his wife and wants to “have dinner with her for a change.” During the final shootout, I expected the writers to let him live because he’s married. Nope: Craig Robinson, another henchman, shoots him because he senses he’s “gone soft.”
Roger Ebert, another singlist, wondered if Apatow was trying to imply Saul and Dale were gay. I wonder: why does close male friendship have to have that implication? Fortunately, many other movies have been giving that same message since then; I Love You Man kicked them off.
Here’s to friendship someday being on the same level as romance, if not higher.
Apatow regular plays Seth Rogen, pothead, process server, and kinduva creep (he’s a 20something who dates a high school girl). His pot dealer is Saul, played by fellow Freaks and Geeks alum (and real-life kinduva creep) James Franco. Saul introduces Dale to a new strain of bud, Pineapple Express. While delivering a summons to a drug dealer named Ted (played by Gary Cole, known for his kinduva creepy Bill Lumbergh role), Dale witnesses him murder a rival gangster. Freaked out, Dale drives away, but not before throwing a roach containing the titular strand of weed.
The kicker: Pineapple Express hasn’t been distributed, and through some detective work, Ted sends his minions to track down Dale and Saul, who spend most of the movie fleeing before they arm themselves and get into a super-violent shootout with Ted’s gang, which includes a corrupt police officer played by Rosie Perez.
I’m a little torn on the movie itself. The first half is hilarious, largely thanks to Franco (who I just learned was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance). But the second is mostly gunfire and explosions. That said, it gets the pro-single nod here:
1)This movie is foursquare in favor of friendship. Dale and Saul become close, and they add a third person, Red, who had initially ratted them out to the dealers, but later became their ally. The last scene takes place in a diner, where they profess their love for each other (“I Love You Man”).
2)Dale dumps Angie, his adolescent girlfriend, during that Dark Night of the Soul moment, after he and Saul have a fight required in the formulas of so many romcoms.
3)Red, at one point during the journey, is reluctant to fight the dealers, saying he wants to go home to his wife, who’s just gotten out of prison. Later, he relents, saying “bros before hos.” The sexism in that statement is problematic, but it’s pro-friendship.
4)One of the dealer’s henchmen, played by Kevin Corrigan, complains how he hasn’t seen his wife and wants to “have dinner with her for a change.” During the final shootout, I expected the writers to let him live because he’s married. Nope: Craig Robinson, another henchman, shoots him because he senses he’s “gone soft.”
Roger Ebert, another singlist, wondered if Apatow was trying to imply Saul and Dale were gay. I wonder: why does close male friendship have to have that implication? Fortunately, many other movies have been giving that same message since then; I Love You Man kicked them off.
Here’s to friendship someday being on the same level as romance, if not higher.
