Tonight at the Aero I caught a sneak preview of the latest Judd Apatow laugh riot, Pineapple Express. Let me say right off the bat that while indeed I did laugh my sun-baked bee-hind off, Pineapple wasn't quite up there in the comedic stratosphere with other Apatow stuff, such as Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Superbad. Still, it was a gay old time. And as a bonus, there was a Q&A afterward with director David Gordon Green (Judd was strictly a producer this time around).
At the start of this year I didn't have a clue who David Gordon Green was. And now in the span of six months I've seen him three times. First, you had that David Gordon Green retrospective at the Egyptian back in February, in anticipation of his new flick Snow Angels. Not bad for a guy who just crossed the border into his thirties, that the American Cinemateque would do a retro on him. So for that I attended a screening of his debut feature, George Washington, which the dude made for pennies about a decade ago, just after graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. And then a couple weeks after that I caught him at the ArcLight Hollywood for a sneak of Snow Angels. Man, after seeing those two films, which are a bit on the solemn side, albeit well made, Dave doesn't strike you as someone who'd click with the likes of Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, et al. Yet it works. It's not all that surprising really. While listening to him talk during the two Q&As earlier this year, it was immediately apparent that he has a great sense of humor. He's sort of a laid-back southern dude, raised in Dallas, now living in North Carolina.
Without spoiling the Pineapple for you, let me give the gist of the plot. So Seth Rogen, right? A Judd Apatow regular since Freaks and Geeks, he plays this process server named Dale. Dude pretty much smokes pot constantly. Seriously, you'd think inhaling was his real job. So we meet him as he drives around with a joint, listening to talk radio (his dream is to be a talk radio host), and serving subpoenas and whatnot, all the while dressing up in various outfits that will get hi
m into the servee's place of business, since he does this while they're at work (when he serves a surgeon, Dale dresses up as an orderly and slips into the operating room while the man's in the middle of a procedure, stuff like that). He's just started a hot and heavy relationship with a high school girl named Angie, who's trying like the Dickens to get Dale to meet her parents (Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn). So all's well. He's got his job, his dream, his girl....and his pot dealer. That would be the perpetually baffled Saul, played by James Franco (Green Goblin Junior from the Spidey flicks, among many other things). Like David Gordon Green, Mr. Franco's best known for the serious material, but now he's ditching all that to play Saul, easily one of the funniest characters in the film. But Saul's not as big a dolt as he seems, for he is the man who not only invented the cross joint (yes, shaped like a church cross, and accordingly lit at the three holy tips), he's also concocted a super species of pot which he's dubbed Pineapple Express. Besides Dale, Saul hasn't given this to anyone else. For the most part. He does answer to people, though, and therein lies the rub.
m into the servee's place of business, since he does this while they're at work (when he serves a surgeon, Dale dresses up as an orderly and slips into the operating room while the man's in the middle of a procedure, stuff like that). He's just started a hot and heavy relationship with a high school girl named Angie, who's trying like the Dickens to get Dale to meet her parents (Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn). So all's well. He's got his job, his dream, his girl....and his pot dealer. That would be the perpetually baffled Saul, played by James Franco (Green Goblin Junior from the Spidey flicks, among many other things). Like David Gordon Green, Mr. Franco's best known for the serious material, but now he's ditching all that to play Saul, easily one of the funniest characters in the film. But Saul's not as big a dolt as he seems, for he is the man who not only invented the cross joint (yes, shaped like a church cross, and accordingly lit at the three holy tips), he's also concocted a super species of pot which he's dubbed Pineapple Express. Besides Dale, Saul hasn't given this to anyone else. For the most part. He does answer to people, though, and therein lies the rub.Coincidentally, Dale has one last summons to deliver before heading home to dream up a reason why he can't see Angie's parents tomorrow. And the servee in question is Saul's crime lord boss, T
ed Jones (played by Gary Cole, who can't help being funny even as a ruthless villain). When he pulls up outside Ted's house, having no idea who he is, Dale decides to finish his Pineapple Express joint before going in. While sitting there, he sees Ted through one of the second-floor windows of his mansion. He also sees a female cop named Carol (Rosie Perez), and a well-dressed Asian gentleman. Although Dale can't hear a word they're saying, obviously some tension's in the air by the way Ted looks pissed and the Asian guy looks kinda scared. And then suddenly both Ted and Carol blow the Asian guy's head off. Dale panics, flicks the joint out the window, and skedaddles outa Dodge. In trying to pull away from the curb, where he'd parallel parked just fine a few moments before, he bumps into the cars in front and behind, making a racket that attracts the attention of Ted and Carol. While Dale does get away in time, he leaves behind the telltale joint. When Ted and Carol come out, Ted spots the joint in the street, picks it up, inhales, and immediately recognizes it as Pineapple Express. And you know, of course, that there's only one person who makes that kind of super joint: Saul.
ed Jones (played by Gary Cole, who can't help being funny even as a ruthless villain). When he pulls up outside Ted's house, having no idea who he is, Dale decides to finish his Pineapple Express joint before going in. While sitting there, he sees Ted through one of the second-floor windows of his mansion. He also sees a female cop named Carol (Rosie Perez), and a well-dressed Asian gentleman. Although Dale can't hear a word they're saying, obviously some tension's in the air by the way Ted looks pissed and the Asian guy looks kinda scared. And then suddenly both Ted and Carol blow the Asian guy's head off. Dale panics, flicks the joint out the window, and skedaddles outa Dodge. In trying to pull away from the curb, where he'd parallel parked just fine a few moments before, he bumps into the cars in front and behind, making a racket that attracts the attention of Ted and Carol. While Dale does get away in time, he leaves behind the telltale joint. When Ted and Carol come out, Ted spots the joint in the street, picks it up, inhales, and immediately recognizes it as Pineapple Express. And you know, of course, that there's only one person who makes that kind of super joint: Saul.And so the ensuing pursuit happens, which makes up the meat of the film. Ted gets his two weirdo goons Budlofsky and Matheson to find Saul and to find out who that guy was who'd been parked in front of the house. One of the recurring jokes in the film is that while they eventually find out Dale's name, they think he's much more important than he really is, like he might be some rival gang lord or some shit. So anyway, Dale shows up at Saul's and says they need to hightail it before Ted's goons show up. I'll leave you there. Suffice it to say that as the pursuit progresses, the film becomes just as much an action pic as it is a comedy. And I guarantee you this: By the time it's over, you'll never look at a Daewoo the same way again.
Oh, and one more thing about this film's plot: Have you ever seen True Romance? It's a 1993 film with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, written by Quentin Tarantino just before his career blasted off with Pulp Fiction. Anyway, so Christian Slater falls for this hooker named
Alabama (Patricia Arquette). He wants to marry her and strip her of her sordid history, which he does by killing her pimp (Gary Oldman). They hightail it from Detroit to L.A. after unwittingly taking a vast fortune in cocaine. Naturally, baddies even worse than Gary Oldman pursue them the whole way. An unknown actor named Brad Pitt has a small part as this small-time dealer we only see in one scene or so. What Judd Apatow did was come up with a comedic version of basically the same plot, but with Brad Pitt's character one of the story's main characters, hence Saul. In Pineapple Express, though, the pursuit isn't cross-country, more like cross-county. When they wrote it, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who also wrote Superbad together and are now writing an update to The Green Hornet of all things) set the story in that same fictional Clark County where Superbad took place. When I saw Superbad last year, I first thought it was Clark County, Nevada, where Vegas is, but apparently not. It's just some generic county that could be anywhere. So anyway, you don't have to see True Romance to enjoy Pineapple, but that was the source material Judd and gang used. You might see True Romance anyway, though. It's a great picture.
Alabama (Patricia Arquette). He wants to marry her and strip her of her sordid history, which he does by killing her pimp (Gary Oldman). They hightail it from Detroit to L.A. after unwittingly taking a vast fortune in cocaine. Naturally, baddies even worse than Gary Oldman pursue them the whole way. An unknown actor named Brad Pitt has a small part as this small-time dealer we only see in one scene or so. What Judd Apatow did was come up with a comedic version of basically the same plot, but with Brad Pitt's character one of the story's main characters, hence Saul. In Pineapple Express, though, the pursuit isn't cross-country, more like cross-county. When they wrote it, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who also wrote Superbad together and are now writing an update to The Green Hornet of all things) set the story in that same fictional Clark County where Superbad took place. When I saw Superbad last year, I first thought it was Clark County, Nevada, where Vegas is, but apparently not. It's just some generic county that could be anywhere. So anyway, you don't have to see True Romance to enjoy Pineapple, but that was the source material Judd and gang used. You might see True Romance anyway, though. It's a great picture.Before I get to the Q&A, let me give a shout-out to two of the film's supporting players. First, there's Craig Robinson. He plays Matheson, one of the goons chasing Dale and Saul. Dude's a hoot. While he's ruthless on the one hand, he's also sort of effeminate and obviously has a crush on his fellow goon Budlofsky, even though the latter's married. Craig had a hilarious cameo as a Hollywood nightclub bouncer in Knocked Up. He's also a regular on The Office.
And I've gotta give props to Danny McBride, who plays Red, another dealer who works for Ted Jones. Danny McBride just made a splash a couple months ago with a little indie comedy he and his buddies made called The Foot Fist Way. Like David Gordon Green, Danny's an alum of NC Arts. He easily steals every scene he's in here. And like Kenny from South Park, he never dies. He gets shot up, blown up, you name it, and the dude just hangs in there. By the time they're having breakfast in the diner at the end, Red's all bloody, bruised, in a neck brace, barely able to keep his eyes open. With this and The Foot Fist Way, I foresee a bright comedic future for Mr. McBride.
The first thing Dave was asked during the Q&A was how in tarnation someone with his track record of moody dramas hooked up with someone like Judd Apatow. So it went like this. While
Judd and gang were still filming Knocked Up in Northridge, they invited Dave to the set. Dave watched them work and noticed two striking parallels in their M.O. One, Judd preferred working with the same people over and over again. He's pretty much been working with the same actors and writers since Freaks and Geeks. And two, Judd loves improv. If you take a peak at either my George Washington or Snow Angels post, you'll see that Dave is huge on improv. Indeed, I reckon screenplays mean less to him than they do to Judd. So Judd said that he wouldn't mind if Dave directed something for his camp. Dave said sure. Two weeks later, he gets the script for Pineapple in the mail. The whole thing was already shot and in the can by the time Knocked Up came out last summer.
Judd and gang were still filming Knocked Up in Northridge, they invited Dave to the set. Dave watched them work and noticed two striking parallels in their M.O. One, Judd preferred working with the same people over and over again. He's pretty much been working with the same actors and writers since Freaks and Geeks. And two, Judd loves improv. If you take a peak at either my George Washington or Snow Angels post, you'll see that Dave is huge on improv. Indeed, I reckon screenplays mean less to him than they do to Judd. So Judd said that he wouldn't mind if Dave directed something for his camp. Dave said sure. Two weeks later, he gets the script for Pineapple in the mail. The whole thing was already shot and in the can by the time Knocked Up came out last summer.Also, Dave had been wanting to do comedy since forever ago. It's just that, after George Washington, the only way he could get financing for more movies was to churn out more of the dramatic stuff, hence Undertow and Snow Angels. He and Danny McBride graduated from NC Arts at the same time and had always wanted to do something together. They'd actually taken a stab at a script a while ago but couldn't drum up any interest. So Dave proceeded with his career while Danny and some other NC Arts pals toiled over The Foot Fist Way. Dave described Snow Angels as a three-year labor of love, following which he was in desperate need to vent some steam. Pineapple Express couldn't've come at a better time, as it pretty much served that purpose. A lot of those action sequences in the second half, and especially during the climax in the giant pot barn, testify to that.
Another question he was asked, which I would've asked if I'd been given the chance, was about all the eighties music. Although the film takes place in the present, just about all the tunes coming from Dale's car radio are from the eighties. We're talking "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant, "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe, and a bunch more. Dave even got Huey Lewis and The News (boy, do they bring back memories!) to record a new song for the film. It's called, you guessed it, "Pineapple Express". Dave said that while gearing up to make this pup, he watched a lot of comedy action pics from the eighties, namely 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop. This got him in the eighties mood, so for no other reason than that he decided to make Dale a fan of eighties music. I can't tell you how awesome that is. The eighties are my favorite decade! I grew up with these songs! And I can't tell you how many times I've seen Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hrs. There was this one summer, '85 or '86, when I had Beverly Hills Cop on tape and watched the blasted thing every. Single. Day. I shit you not.As is par for the course on both Dave and Judd movies, the script was very bare bones. The actors improvised their butts off. Dave said that a good deal of what made the final cut was improv. The way this can bite you, though, is by creating holes in the plot. There are one or two in this bad boy, but the way Dave decided to fix that was by throwing in that breakfast diner scene at the end. I won't tell you what happens, but that scene does pretty much acknowledge the absurdity of the story (e.g. Danny McBride gets shot up but never dies!). Improv can also mean scenes take forever to shoot. Danny McBride had to do this one very short scene in the bathroom. You wouldn't think much of it if you saw it, but apparently that one scene took four hours to shoot. Dave said he let the camera roll while he fed ideas to his actor.
Dave also gave props to his leading men. Yes, James Franco did live up to his rep as being kind of serious. During the costume fittings, Dave kept making him try on all kinds of weird outfits until James blew his top. But he was a very dedicated actor. At one point his character Saul runs smack into a tree while fleeing the bad guys. When they shot that, James really did run head on into that tree, splitting his head open. During this one kerfuffle at Red's place between Dale, Saul, and Red, Seth Rogen actually broke one of his fingers. And when Saul was supposed to whack Red in the head with this giant bong, sure enough, James actually swung that bong full force into Danny McBride's noggin. Gotta love devotion.
