Beware: Rancors ahead

I saw Pineapple Express last weekend. I was mostly drawn in by the presence of Seth Rogen and James Franco, both of whom I love. There was one point, when I watched Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin, and some episodes of Freaks and Geeks, that I wound up with a huge crush on Seth Rogen. I still find him fairly impressive, but the crush is mostly gone. Mostly. Franco, however...seriously, just look. Behold the pretty. Anyway.

In general, though, I'm not really a fan of stoner humor. I got annoyed with all the sequences in Knocked Up that involved them sitting around, smoking pot. So why see Pineapple Express? Other than the pretty.

I think I thought it would be more like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which is also a stoner movie, but struck me more as a kind of wacky adventure movie. Also, it had Neil Patrick Harris. It was strange and bizarre and random...but I really enjoyed it.

I can't say the same thing for Pineapple Express. It had some really hilarious moments--the thought of the car chase still makes me laugh--but overall, it was eh. However, I had no problems with the last sequence, which a lot of critics seemed to single out. It highlighted one of the things that I like in movies like this, namely, showing how normal people would actually behave in a fight. (Which also makes me think of the Xander-Harmony fight from Buffy.) If for some reason I found myself in a fight, that's pretty much how I see myself behaving.

Overall, Franco and Rogen are likeable, and the movie definitely has its good moments, but you can definitely hold off and Netflix it later.