Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is metaphor used by every west coast meteorologist in reference to the moisture laden winds that originate around the Hawaiian Islands and condense as sheets of winter rain across the lower mainland. The term is probably a flashback to Seth Rogan’s hazy days at Point Grey secondary but here he tags the name on a potent strain of marijuana allegedly cultured by the army in the 30’s but having no possible military use appears to literally have been kept underground for decades. Rogan as Dale Denton is a successful process server who dulls the tedium of his job by maintaining a constant herbal buzz. His dealer Saul Silver (James Franco easily stepping back into comedy) lets his best customer in on the newly emerged pot strain which unbeknownst to them is the object of a drug war. When Dale serves papers to a scofflaw named Ted Jones (Gary Cole) he turns out to be one of the warring gang leaders and Dale inadvertently witnesses Ted taking out one of his rivals. The joint that he drops in his hasty exit from the scene of the crime leads the bad guys to Dale through Saul and his supplier “Red” (Danny R. McBride) and the chase is on. The humour is often so over the top that it’s borderline morbid but clever one liners and comic subtleties are tossed off so quickly that Pineapple Express will probably see a lot of repeat business just to pick up parts missed the first time, not to mention further entrench Seth Rogan as a comedy god.