I’ve been giving Sony Pictures a rough time this year. Granted, they deserve it. They’ve released eleven movies in 2008 so far, and as of this moment all of them have been, if not outright disasters, at the very least pedestrian downers (with maybe only 21 and The Other Boleyn Girl worthy of being labeled as nothing more than moderately ho-hum disappointments) unworthy of discussion.

Seth Rogan and James Franco are flying high in Sony Pictures' The Pineapple Express

With director David Gordon Green (Snow Angels) and producer/co-writer Judd Apatow’s (Knocked Up) latest effort The Pineapple Express that ungodly streak of mediocrity thankfully comes to an end. Not only is this one of the more breezily entertaining flicks of the summer, it’s also one of the funniest comedies I’ve had the pleasure to see this year.

Process server Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) loves to smoke marijuana. Next to spending time making out with his 18-year-old girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard), sitting around with a joint in his hand is all he really wants from life. Heck, he’d probably do it all day if he could, pesky things like paying the rent and keeping his car running all that’s keeping Dale from living a life of pot-filled bliss.

But after he witnesses a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and the city’s most dangerous drug lord (Gary Cole) commit a cold-blooded murder sitting around getting high doesn’t look so fantastic. With his easygoing (and slightly vacuous) drug dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) by his side, Dale desperately tries to escape before the bad guys close in on them both and riddles their bodies with bullet holes. Still, one more joint for the road probably wouldn’t hurt, the glories of a good hit all either of them needs to make the screeching tires and thunderous cacophony of gunfire disappear into happily chill oblivion.

I’m a little bit surprised I enjoyed this movie as much as I did. I’m not usually a fan of marijuana comedies. I never understood the fascination with Cheech and Chong, I think Half-Baked is as half-witted as they come and I’m positive both Harold and Kumar should never have been let out of White Castle. The only pot-fueled comedy I’ve ever enjoyed in its entirety was Curtis Hanson’s marvelously complex and original Michael Douglas enterprise Wonder Boys, rest of the genre leaving me as cold as a frosty February snowball unceremoniously dumped down the front of my shirt.

Yet Pineapple Express did it for me. Starting with Franco’s truly inspired award-worthy supporting performance (easily the finest work of his career) and going all the way through to the end of this Midnight Run meets Pulp Fiction comedic freight train I had a blast. I laughed, sometimes out loud, a couple of times with tears in my eyes, and right from the start this one had me intoxicated deep within its smoky spell.

Not that it’s perfect. I usually like Cole just fine, and it’s wonderful to see Perez up on the big screen again after what seems like forever, but they’ve got to be two of the worst screen villains I’ve seen in who knows how long. There’s no edge to them, nothing that makes you scared or apprehensive when they walk into the room. Worse, they’re not very funny, and every time the film shifts focus to them I kind of tuned out twiddling my thumbs wondering when we’d get back to something worthwhile.

Happily, Rogan and Franco more than make up for these shortcomings becoming a sparkling comedic dynamic duo I’d love to see team up again. Their Mutt and Jeff give-and-take is instantly energizing. Like Murphy and Nolte or Grodin and DeNiro these to cackle with an intensity bordering on the magnificent, and almost as if they’d been doing it all their lives the duo put the film right on the square of their backs and carry it right into the stratosphere.

It helps immeasurably that director Green takes his skills as an independent filmmaker and puts them to good use on this. His eye for detail, so vivid and uncompromising in dramatically devastating works as diverse as George Washington and All the Real Girls, perfectly suited to such an observational comedy such as this one. The filmmaker creates a milieu that is wholly believable, the world Dale and Saul live in as solid and as concrete as our very own. 

I admit I didn’t think it was going to happen. Eleven losers in a row starts to make you think some pretty bad thoughts, and those I had concerning Sony and their product wasn’t exactly smelling like a rose. But I love it when a movie comes along to break me out of my stupor, forces me to sit up straight and take notice. The Pineapple Express is just that sort of picture, and as these sorts of joints are concerned this one will get you high in all the right ways and then some.

- review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle 

Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)

Additional Links

-  The Pineapple Express Theatrical Trailer