Pineapple Express shines through Franco

Pineapple Express
Moviehook Rating... (B)

First he was a Navy Seal in Annapolis, and then he starred as Peter Parker's nemesis in the Spiderman trilogy, and in his latest movie James Franco plays a lovable drug dealer named Saul Silver. Who knew James Franco was such a comedian? Franco first saw comedic success in a small part in the movie Knocked up who his co-star in Pineapple Express Seth Rogen starred in. Rogen has been on fire in the last year, and with all this success, Rogen got the green light on his script for Pineapple Express which he wrote back in 2001. In the original draft of the script, Rogen wrote the part of Saul for himself, but he later found that Franco would be the perfect fit for the part.

Pineapple Express tells the story of a dead-end slacker named Dale Denton (Rogen), who spends his days getting stoned in his car, and dressing up in disguises serving people for missing there court dates. He listens to talk radio constantly hoping to someday break into the radio industry. Dale also dates an eighteen year old high school girl named Angie (Amber Heard), who wants him to take there relationship more seriously by meeting her parents. But Dale has trouble taking anything seriously in his life.

When Dale finds that he has run out of weed, he must call his dealer Saul Silver (Franco). Saul is an optimistic about life burnout who is selling drugs in hope of putting his bubby in a good retirement home someday. Dale starts out thinking Saul could never be his friend, but as the movie progresses and the duo finds themselves in the middle of a drug war between Saul's provider Tedd Jones (Gary Cole) and the Asians. They begin to bond, and see they are not so different from each other.

Franco and Rogen have amazing chemistry on screen, but they are also surrounded by the always hysterical Danny Mcbride as Red, and the wacky and sometimes homosexual Mathison played by Craig Robinson. Even if you are offended by risky antics of the Pineapple Express cast, it is still hard not to laugh at the hundred of punch lines delivered to perfection in every scene. This is definitely one that no one should miss, and it is now available on DVD.

Pineapple Express was one of the funniest movies of 2008, but it is not for young children, the F word is used 180 times throughout the movie. it is also filled with tons of action sequences, and gun fights.