Pineapple Express

David Gordon Green
2008

What happened to David Gordon Green? One minute he's crafting masterpieces like "George Washington" (2000) and to a lesser extent "All The Real Girls" (2003), and now he's stuck making Cheech and Chong rehashes. "Undertow" (2004) may have been far less inspired than his first two pictures, but by general release standards it was in no way a bad picture, but while I was disappointed to miss "Snow Angels" (2007) I heard it was absolutely dreadful. I don't mean to harsh on Green too much. "Pineapple Express" is a pretty decent flick and I love it when gifted directors work in multiple genres (and this one bounces around several at once with shades of the stoner film, buddy movie, and actioner), but ultimately Judd Apatow's involvement goes a long way to damaging a good time. Green's love of 70's film is visually present with clever costumes and gorgeously saturated color photography. The picture's sense of humor is great, less present in the dopey pothead antics, than in it's absurdist tendencies. The drug-lord villain is amusingly banal, and a minor dealer receives massive amounts of punishment throughout, only to bounce back every time. Inevitably though, this lively story gets injected with unctuous doses of Apatovian male bonding. Feelings are hurt and guys blubber like sissies only to "make up" later on. It's fine to do it in one or two movies, but why does every comedy these days have to be filled to the gills with touchey-feeley man-babies?