Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) has got it good. He might drive around in a beater car and wear a dingy, decidedly unfashionable brown suit, but he dates a hot high-school chick (Jeanetta Arnette) and holds down a job that doesn’t require too much effort (he serves subpoenas). Hell, he spends half his day getting stoned. So when his drug dealer, Saul (James Franco), offers him a blend of weed called “pineapple express,” he goes for it. It’s at this point that the trouble begins in Pineapple Express, a stoner caper produced by the ubiquitous Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin). In the end, the chemistry between Rogen and Franco overcomes the movie’s flaws, bringing to life the quips and banter (Rogen co-wrote the script) in such a way that the film’s likely to become the kind of thing you’d watch again and still find something worth laughing at. HHH
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2008.
