Packed with more special features then should be deemed legal, the Pineapple Express 2-Disc is another excuse to sit your ass in front of the television on a Friday night and into Saturday morning. This is the good stuff. I drool with anticipation when a movie produced by Judd Apatow comes out. His DVDs aren’t just home videos, they’re events. Pineapple Express continues the tradition with a truckload of “making of” material, skits, and commentary tracks. A few featurettes taste like milk duds, but not enough to ruin the special edition’s value. Pineapple Express is worth more that what you paid your favorite video dealer.
The movie stars Seth Rogen as a process server named Dale Denton who witnesses a murder while attempting to deliver a subpoena. Dale flees, dropping his joint filled with Pineapple Express, an extremely rare strain of marijuana. The killer, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), was the man he was supposed to serve with the subpoena. Unfortunately, he also happens to be the supplier for Dale’s drug dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco). Ted assumes the two work for his competitors, the Asians, and sends henchmen to kill them. These include Rosie Perez as a corrupt cop and two assassins played by Kevin Corrigan (Superbad, Undeclared) and Chris Robinson (Knocked Up, The Office)
What I liked most about Pineapple Express was its stoner take on action movies by directors like John McTiernan and Quentin Tarantino. On the other hand, it has noticeably fewer one-liners than Knocked Up and Superbad. A somewhat hastily written screenplay makes certain scenes silly and confusing. Plus, the character Ted is hardly a menacing lead villain. Sure he’s merciless in the opening act. But then he inexplicably devolves into a non-functioning alcoholic during the film’s midsection. By the finale, Ted’s turned back into a killer. It’s unclear what the writers were smoking.
The extended cut tacks five minutes onto the theatrical release. The hit men interrogate Saul’s drug dealer friend, Red, who frets about lying to his friends. Adding this shot makes Red looks less sleazy and more like the buddy who always wimps out. The filmmakers include a nice joke where Ted nicknames more pot varieties. When Ted threatens the Asians, his son (Troy Gentile, Drillbit Taylor) interrupts him on another phone. We also see one more scene with Dale’s girlfriend, Angie (Amber Heard) and her parents.
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