MOVIE REVIEW - Pineapple Express

Seth Rogen has a new comedy out this week, Pineapple Express. Pineapple Express is the name of a kind of primo pot that is causing all the trouble here.

Meet Dale, Sol, and Red. They are young adults, Dale has a job the others really don't. Sol and Red sell pot for a living out of their houses, and all three pretty much spend all of their time smoking grass, getting high and not much else. Dale buys from Sol, who buys from Red, and so it goes. Dale one night witnesses a drug deal murder, with Pineapple Express as the cause. He is spotted watching the murders, and the bigger drug dealers are now out to kill him. Soon Red and Sol become guilty by association, and they are all in the cross-hairs now.

There have been many pot smoking movies made dating all the way back to Cheech and Chong. This is nothing really new, just maybe some raunchier language and a little more violence. I was a little surprised at the amount of violence in this flick, I wasn't really expecting it. But in some strange way, it's not really very troubling given the fact that this is a "dark comedy."

Strange thing today though. When I went to the movie, there was about 20 people there. There was this one guy about 60 there by himself. I have never heard anyone laugh so hard, loud and often in a movie in my life. But strangely, he was the only one. I was starting to think he was as high as Dale, Sol, and Red, and in retrospect, he may have been. There are moments in this comedy that are humorous, but not "let's echo through the theater" loud like our 60 year old stoner at the movies was today.

Rated R, PA is totally an adult dark comedy. For my money it was a little lengthy and drawn out at times. Trouble was, there just isn't enough story here to sustain a two hour movie, and the points had to be elongated or you have a 1 hour movie. PA can also be a little loud and chaotic at times, and that gets fatiguing at times as well.

Pineapple Express will not die on the vine and will do big money this weekend. It is a mindless night at the movies, but even that can be fun sometimes. If you're not amused by casual drug usage, it's humor and all that goes with it.... keep on going. Most of this misses, but there is a hit or two. The company you keep will make all the difference again.