#Pineapple express talk radio series#

Budlofsky and Matheson arrive at the house but Dale and Saul depart before they can be captured and Angie's family goes to a hotel.ĭale and Saul then sell Pineapple Express to raise bus fare but Dale is arrested by police officer Bobbra. Believing his high-schooler girlfriend Angie to be in danger, he and Saul travel to her home where they are removed at gunpoint by her father. Budlofsky and Matheson torture Red for information and both shoot him in the abdomen. Dale and Saul visit Red, who after a fight, reveals that Ted knows who they are and intends to kill them. They attempt to hide in the woods where Dale's car battery dies. Dale and Saul decide they must flee the city. While fleeing, Dale throws his roach containing Pineapple Express, which Ted identifies and he sends his henchmen Budlofsky and Matheson to Red, a drug dealer who tells them about Saul.īack at Saul's apartment, Dale learns Ted is a local drug lord and could trace the roach as only Red and Saul have the Pineapple Express strain. He arrives at the home of Ted Jones and witnesses Ted and police officer Carol Brazier shoot and kill an Asian man. Dale and Saul smoke the rare 'Pineapple Express' strain together before Dale leaves to resume working. Jason Coffman is a freelance writer and film critic in Chicago.Dale Denton, a process server and marijuana enthusiast, visits his drug dealer, Saul.

God only knows what Apatow and company might come up with next, but if they’re willing to gamble to come up with something this great, I know I’ll be looking forward to it. A few scenes end with freeze-frames and wipes that are perfectly complemented by the ’70s-inspired electronics in the score by Grame Revell.Īnd so, even though Pineapple Express might seem like a strange proposal on paper, the finished product is one of the best major-studio films of the year. For the most part, though, the violence is about on par with the ’80s buddy comedies the film is clearly emulating and paying tribute. The violence is mostly kept at action-comedy remove, except for a few bits where some graphic effects are played for slapstick.

They’re clumsy and awkward, and they often tend to hurt themselves more than anyone else. The action scenes follow the dialogue scenes: generally, these are not characters who are used to dealing with car chases and guns, and they mostly act like it. Hell, even Rosie Perez is watchable in this film! McBride deserves special mention as Red, Saul’s drug supplier and the link between him and Jones. Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan are both great as longtime coworkers who seem to be getting tired of each other rather than falling into a comfortable routine, and Gary Cole is amazing but (as usual) doesn’t get nearly enough screen time. Rogen and Franco have great comic chemistry together, reunited on-screen for the first time since Freaks and Geeks. The fact that the cast is fantastic across the board also helps. This is no doubt due to Green’s loose direction, allowing for a lot of great character moments for which a standard action comedy wouldn’t have time. In a film about mostly despicable characters, just about everyone is actually very likeable.

#Pineapple express talk radio series#

The film plays out in a series of hilarious and unexpected scenes, including a nature walk with Dale and Saul and some truly ingenious dialogue between the two thugs chasing them down. Ted and Carol think that Denton and Saul are working for a rival Asian gang, and so send a couple of thugs (Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan) to track them down. Panicked, Dale runs to the only person he can think of who might be able to help: Saul. One night while waiting to serve papers, Dale sees his target Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and female police officer Carol (Rosie Perez) execute a man in front of a picture window. Angie is pressing for Dale to meet her parents, but Dale is unsurprisingly commitment-phobic, more interested in dreaming of being a talk radio host and trying not to spend too much time with his pot dealer Saul (James Franco). Seth Rogen plays Dale Denton, a perpetually-stoned Process Server dating Angie (Amber Heard), a high-school senior. It’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen this year. With a great cast and excellent writing, Pineapple Express continually flirts with and subverts action comedy clichés and is all the better for it. It’s a weird, unexpected choice of directors, a huge gamble, but it absolutely works. David Gordon Green, as in the George Washington David Gordon Green. On paper, Pineapple Express sounds like an iffy proposition: a Judd Apatow-produced stoner action comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco and directed by David Gordon Green. Pineapple Express (2008) by Jason Coffman