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+ Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Stone Comedy of the Year
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| Three popular male stars, - with just two of them receiving credit, - on this smoke-filled poster for David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express |
A civil servant visits a pot dealer and gets a new kind of weed called Pineapple Express. On his next trip, however, he witnesses a police murder, which gets connected to him and the dealer.
Pineapple Express is written by Evan Goldberg (Preacher (2016-19)) and co-writer/co-star Seth Rogen (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)), with co-producer/co-writer Judd Apatow (The King of Staten Island (2020)) contributing story elements, and directed by Arkansan master filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 5th feature it is.
It is a wacky, potty-mouthed film, ripe with stoner humor, - right from Bill Hader's (The Skeleton Twins (2014)) fairly unrelated 1937-set opening scene to the very end, - but also with flashes of crazy-comedy and deadpan gags. James Franco (The Interview (2014)), Rogen and Danny McBride (Arizona (2018)) compliment each other well and are seconded by scores of other funny folk here, of whom especially Craig Robinson (The Bad Guys (2022)) and the police women (Rosie Perez (Inside the Rain (2019)) and Cleo King (Deadwood: The Movie (2019, TV movie))) are funny.
Pineapple Express, and especially the extended home video version, is overlong, but the laughs are plentiful along the way.
Related posts:
David Gordon Green: Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot
Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece
Watch a short clip from the film here
Cost: 25-27 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 102.4 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.93 times its cost)
[Pineapple Express premiered 31 July (Hollywood) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 2007 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit The Dark Knight, to a 23.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 87.3 mil. $ (85.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.9 mil. $ (6.7 %) and Australia with 3.6 mil. $ (3.5 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film made an estimated 48 mil. $ on the North-American home video market as well. Plans for a sequel stranded, as the stars and filmmakers wanted 50 mil. $ for it, and Sony would 'only' allow 45 mil. $. Green returned with Your Highness (2011). Rogen returned in Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008); Franco in Nights in Rodanthe (2008). Pineapple Express is fresh at 68 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Pineapple Express?
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