DVD picks

Stoned Heroes, Young Lovers, and Veteran Cops

It's an inspired premise: What happens when you cross the stoner movie with the action movie, and put two laconic potheads in the midst of a rather stress-inducing California drug war?

"Pineapple Express" is an attempt to answer that question, with ascendant icon Seth Rogen ("Knocked Up") and photogenic wild card James Franco ("Spider-man") leading the charge. Predictably almost inevitably, it seems Judd Apatow is among the writer-producers involved. As such, the movie bears his patented comedic stamp: Over-the-top vulgarity leavened with unabashed sentimentality.

Somehow it all falls together, once again, into an agreeably entertaining, frequently hilarious 90-plus minutes of comedic anarchy. Credit Rogen and Franco for the bulk of this. They create a pair of high-time buddies for whom no crisis is insurmountable, so long as they have a sufficient supply of marijuana and snack foods.

Rogen plays Dale Denton, a chronically laid-back process server who has the misfortune, one foggy evening, to witness a murder committed by the local drug king (Gary Cole) and a crooked cop (Rosie Perez). Rogen alerts his dealer Saul Silver (Franco) and they hit the ground running with the bad guys fast on their heels.

When it comes to crime, guns and tense Mexican standoffs, Dale and Saul only know what they've seen in the late-night action movies they've watched while stoned to the bejeezus belt. Turns out, that's about all you need to know for this movie.

The two approach their dilemma with the sweet cluelessness of the perpetually high, less disturbed by the bullets and blood as by the bummer vibe of it all. Director David Gordon Green is a strange choice indeed for this material, having earned his art house pedigree with delicate theatrical dramas. But he manages things nicely for the most part, allowing the scenes to occasionally wander off in new improvisational directions in service of a found joke or two.

Only in the last act do the requirements of the genre get the best of him, as the movie devolves into a mess of explosions, guns, chases, and faceless henchmen dispatching one another with machine guns. Watch out, the unrated DVD version is even more cheerfully violent than the theatrical R-rated cut. But even in the midst of ill-considered shoot-'em-up gore, Rogen and (especially) Franco remain likeable and funny as best buds on the mother of all bad trips.

Still, if you don't like stoner movies, "Pineapple Express" probably won't change your mind. May I suggest an alternative? Director Green has a sterling resume under his belt, and among the best of his movies is "All the Real Girls" starring Zooey Deschanel and released in 2003.

Working in more familiar waters, Green who attended North Carolina School of the Arts tells the story of a handful of rudderless Carolina kids navigating the world of life after high school.

Green and his crew he tends to keep the same technical guys on board assemble a movie of great feeling and carefully observed behavior. It's as deep and quiet as "Pineapple Express" is broad and loud. When Deschanel returns from a girls' boarding school to her hometown, the balance of friendships among the local boys' club is disrupted.

It's a story of young love, and how messy and ultimately powerful those times can be. The photography and music, together with the script, evoke a tremendous mood of melancholy. The DVD making-of materials reveal that, as with "Pineapple Express," Green let his actors improvise many scenes and even create new ones. That it all results in a film of such singular power and vision is a testament to a director comfortable with working on his feet. Highly recommended.