By Debbie Schlussel
When a movie co-stars Rosie Perez (for whose Spanglish I need a translator), it’s in trouble.
While I liked the ultimate message of “Pineapple Express“, which is “Don’t do drugs and don’t deal ’em either,” getting to that message was like watching salami being made–we’d rather not see the process. This movie was extremely violent, bloody, and disgusting. And while parts of it were very funny, it’s like all Judd Apatow movies: I’m embarrassed I laughed.
I like actor James Franco, but he can and should do better than this. He plays Saul Silver–an obviosly Jewish stoner drug dealer, whose only mature characteristic is that he takes care of his “Bubbie” (grandmother). I really wish the Jewish Apatow would stop inserting the gratuitous Jewish references in his disgusting, vulgar movies. We don’t need to claim him.

Silver sells his pot customer, loser process server Dale Denton (Seth Rogen), a rare exotic strain of marijuana, “Pineapple Express.” Denton is about to serve a man, when he sees the man and a female cop (Perez) shoot to death an Asian man. Denton drops the pot he’s smoking and drives away.
But the man who did the shooting is Saul Silver’s drug kingpin supplier–who killed a rival Asian gang leader–and he figures out that the pot is his “Pineapple Express,” tracking down both Silver and Denton, who are now on the run from him. The rest of the movie is Silver and Denton running from the drug kingpin and Rosie Perez in a series of very bloody, violent, disgusting “madcap” scenes.
Like I said, this is typical Apatow stuff plus your typical stoner movie, which means it’s mostly skipworthy. Yes, it’s funny in parts (but not enough), but not enough to make up for the lame plot, the obvious ad-libbing, and the blood and violence.
Seems to me they smoked too much “Pineapple Express” when they wrote this script. Is it just me . . . or are you sick of the Seth Rogen’s “disgusting nerdy loser Jew” act? Come up with something new–and less self-hating.
TWO MARXES