Pineapple Express - S11 E88

All aboard the Pineapple Express! This week on Shoot the Hostage, Sarah and Dan are blazing a trail through the sticky green jungle of films about drugs as they unpack the 2008 stoner comedy, Pineapple Express.

Join us atop the podcast pineapple as we dive into the surprisingly long history of stoner comedies, from 1932’s Jewel Robbery to the anti-marijuana propaganda of Reefer Madness and how the abolition of the Hays Code in the late 60’s truly unleashed the genre with pioneers like Cheech and Chong.

Here’s what to expect from the episode:

• A look at David Gordon Green’s incredibly varied filmography
• Opinions on the cast performances including Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson.
• Critique of Dale Denton’s relationships
• Stoner comedies from the 70’s to the late 2000’s
• Discussion around the subjectivity of comedy

Season 11 runs until August 11th with 8 episodes

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Shoot the Hostage with me, Sarah, and my partner Dan. We're a movie podcast and we cover eight films per season on a specific theme. Now, we swear we chat major spoilers and we occasionally cover triggering topics. So, please do use listener discretion. If you like what we do and want to support us, consider hitting five stars on Spotify or maybe subscribing or even reviewing on your platform of choice. We also have a Patreon with a free tier for lineups and updates and two paid tiers with extra cont. content and early ad free uploads. Right, on with the show all aboard the Pineapple Express

(00:01):
because we're on top of the pineapple.
It's a big
We're on a pineapple apparently.
We're on a big podcast. The podcast pineapple.
We're a top the podcast pineapple.
We're a top the breading which is top the podcast pineapple.
This is absolute nonsense.
Yeah. A bit like this movie, right?
You think this movie is nonsense?
Uh, objectively, yes.
Okay. Interesting.
So, we're talking about Pineapple Express. Our first Seph Rogan movie.
Uhhuh.
Our second James Franco movie.
Second only behind The Hicker Man.
I don't think you can really call that a James Franco movie, but yes,
he made an appearance.
He did. And let's play a little game of which one did Dan prefer?
Should we come back to this at the end of the show?
You did not prefer the Wicker Man remake. Dan. Dan.
It might be funnier than Pineapple. Express.

(00:22):
Is this just your Nick Cage bias shining through?
Uh, it might be a little bit, but I genuinely go back and listen to our Hickman show, but genuinely found that very funny. And line these two movies up together, I think I laugh more at the Wicker Man than I did in Pineapple Express.
That is nuts to me.
Is nuts. Okay. Well,
so this was not your first outing a top the Pineapple Express. You'd seen this before?
Yeah, I had. It wasn't my first Pineapple Rodeo. I actually think I blind bought this back in the day. Uh, so what year did this come out? 2008.
2008.
So it must have been about 2009. I think it was a blockbuster exental.
Okay.
Oh, it's the the bloke from Knockup and the 40-year-old Virgin. I like that guy. He's funny.
Oh, he was also the guy that was in Donny Darko for a minute.
Literally a minute. Yeah.
Yeah. So I think I And particularly my age at the time like Yeah. This has got me written all over it. Stoner comedy. Blind bought it. Watched it. Didn't love it. Never watched it again.
See, that surprised me when you told me that for the first time because please don't take this the wrong way.
Oh, I love it when you start a sentence like that.
I'm not going to dig you out.
That's not the word I was going to use.
But you do strike me as the sort of person to whom stoner comedies would appeal.
Yeah. And if you'd have asked me when I was 13, then absolutely yes. But okay,
looking back on it now, well, maybe we'll talk about stoner comedies in general, shall we?
When I was a teenager,

(00:43):
loved them.
What did you have then? Um, I think probably the first What was the first stone comedy? Are we talking Chichin Chong?
So, I did a bit of research. If we're talking stoner films, um, then the first kind of mention that I could find was, um, a film from 1932 called Jewel Robbery.
I haven't seen that one.
I haven't seen that one. But I did have a quick look on letter boxed and a lot of the reviews were basically just, "Oh, this guy robs a jewelry store and gets everybody stoned." And it sounded kind of insane, but I think it was intended to be more of like a morality thing.
Okay.
Much like Reefer Madness, which I believe was four years later in 1936.
All right.
And was basically just anti-marijuana propaganda. But in the 70s there was a bit of a revival. So they kind of I I'm So I'm guessing basically that Do you know what the haze code is?
I do not.
Okay. So the haze code is something um you definitely you must have heard me mention that term before. It was like a set of rules that the movie industry as a whole in in the states at least adhered to between the early 30s and I think it ran all the way to the late60s. And it basically was was just a way to to police the content of movies with specific reference to like sex and violence. So, there wasn't any violence that was allowed to be shown on screen. Like no overt sexuality, no no sex scenes,
no fun stuff at all.
Nothing good.
Yeah. Watch this pot boil.
Yeah. The Haze Code was basically the fun police.
Yeah. And when I say pot, I I don't mean
Yeah. Not that kind this time. So, I guess when that was abolished in the late60s, there was a little bit more freedom. And it's funny because now that you know that, if you watch films from certain periods, it will become obvious like how puritanical the values were at any given time. And so in the 70s, there was a bit of a revival and a bit of a renewed interest in this kind of thing. So they started um cinemas started showing Reefer Madness again, but as like an ironic comedy. So They took the this straight laced anti-drugs propaganda movie and people started to view it as a comedy. I'm guessing cuz they were high.
Yeah.
But that then led to like the the door was then opened and I think Chichin Chong's first movie I believe was up in in smoke.
It was
in 78.

(01:04):
Yeah. It's where they build the van out of weed.
Yes. Which sounds structurally sound.
And then the uh I believe the exhaust starts to burn the weed and everyone around them starts to get high.
Oh no. Who could have foreseen that?
Yeah. These crazy circumstances these two get themselves into. It's nuts, isn't it?
In the limited research that I did, it seems like Chichin Chong were the pioneers of the stoner comedy.
I would say the first time I saw a Chichin Chong movie, I believe I was 14 and I think it was my mom. She was like, "Uh, oh, you've never seen Chichin Chong." Like, "No, mom, because I'm still a child and I live and you've never told me about it. And then the internet doesn't exist yet.
You're my window to the world. You're only just telling me.
Yeah. So, I think um me and my mates, we bunked off school, did nothing else while we were sitting there.
Yeah.
And then we watched Chichin Chong up in smoke and laughed our asses off for about 90 minutes. Honestly, like one of the top five laughing fits in my life, I would say. One of the funniest things I've I've ever seen. But there could have been other factors that were involved with that,
such as just, you know, just chilling out with your mates, not doing anything at all
with rolling papers or or any kind of other substances like no hash or anything involved. Um, definitely not cuz I was very young in high school and that didn't happen where I'm from in in Essics with no I'd never even heard of drugs until you you came up with this theme for the season,
right?
It's the first time so this has been a real education for you so far.
Yeah, it really has. Um, so yeah, really really enjoyed was Chin Chong. I think moving on from and they were what 70s going into the 80s possibly.
The the Chong the Chong boys. Uh Mr. Marin.
I don't think anybody's ever called them that.
One of them's a Chong boy. The other one is
it's Tommy Chong.
Tommy Chong and Chich Marin.

(01:25):
Chich Marin. Yeah.
Yeah. Um and it might have been actually that I saw from Dustil Dawn first and then watched Chich and Chong going. Oh, it's the p**** guy.
I thought that was Leonardo DiCaprio.
Yeah, it's Lucas. pass said no one ever.
Yeah. Apart from Lucas.
Yeah. And um Yeah. So Chin Chong ' 90s probably going into the Polish Shaw era. Would you class his some of his movies as stoner comedies?
I think any movie that Paulie Shaw has been in would be improved substantially by weed. Yeah,
I'm sure. Well, he's a he's his character.
Does that make them a stoner comedy? That's for you to judge.
Well, he has that persona of a a kind of a hippie, doesn't he? A stoner hippie. Or he did at least back in back in those days with things like California Man,
a film that we mentioned way too often. But In the Army Now, Biodome, which is one of your favorites.
I wouldn't call it one of my favorites.
You quote it all the time.
Free Mahi.
Yeah, exactly. There's not a week that goes by that you don't mention f****** bio.
It's my sciatica.
I'm sorry.
Yeah. apologize.
Uh, so yeah, so ' 90s, um, Poly Shaw, I believe, and then you get into the 2000s, we're looking at, uh, Harold and Kamar situations, right? And how many movies did they release? Three.
Three that I know of. Three that I've seen, should I say.
And again, I think I bought probably the first one as a blind buyer and watched that and again didn't like it very much.

(01:46):
It's I mean, so the thing with stoner comedies is that I think obviously I made the joke already, but I genuinely Do you think they are made better by being stoned?
I I wouldn't know.
Well, I would know because I am a medical cannabis user. I have a prescription and a card.
Yeah.
So, I can talk about it freely.
You can.
Unlike some people.
I Yeah. So, you were saying.
So, yeah. I think by their very nature they're really purile.
Yeah. They're stupid.
They Yeah. really really dumb. But there's still like an ounce of appeal for me. When I say an ounce, that's again not a pun. Wasn't intended.
I don't get it.
But there is there is like a just a nugget of appeal still. Even though they're the most immature things, like the basist humor you could possibly imagine,
it still makes me laugh.
It's been a long time since I watched Up in Smoke, but I watched it quite a lot when I was a teenager and I feel like I was getting to the point where I stop started to stop finding it funny. But I don't know if that's because I'd seen it too much or I was just so mature now, Dan.
I was going to say I outgrew it, didn't I? I'm so mature now.
Yeah.
But um I can't I can't say that it's a type of movie that I really have any fondness for anymore.
I did for for about two years when I was a teenager and then tried a few times with various things and I don't I couldn't name you one that I really really really like now.
Yeah, I mean much the same to be honest. There when I say there is like a nugget of appeal, I mean for the ones that I enjoy the ones like Pineapple Express and the Harold and Kumars. One of the I think it was the third one with Neil Patrick Harris. Far funnier than it had any right to be. Although Sarah today might have a differing opinion if I watched it right now. I don't know.
But yeah, just those dom comedies, some of them do appeal. And I mean obviously we're specifically talking about stoner comedies, but there were sort of stoner films outside of the comedy realm as well. Um, I guess the first of which I would have seen would be Easy Rider because that was one of my dad's favorites. You could probably call that a stoner movie.

(02:07):
I haven't I haven't seen it.
Okay.
Okay.
But yeah, it wasn't until the 70s that they sort of became a thing like stoner comedies became recognized as a thing.
And I think outside of Chichin Chong, Pineapple Express is probably one of the more well-known ones. They don't stand comedies don't really get made anymore, do they?
They don't come along very often, which I think is probably for the best.
Comedies don't come around very often in general, do they?
Well, they do. They're just director to prime and written for simpletons.
I still feel like Well, yeah, but I except for Ricky Steniki, which is a masterpiece.
Yeah. Five stars.
I still feel like even if you factor in the comedies that were released straight to streaming on your Amazon and your Netflix, I feel like there's still not as many for some reason. I don't know when I was a teenager, I felt like every week there was a new comedy out and and maybe you get one a month now.
Well, you're in luck cuz we've got Happy Gilmore 2 to look forward to this month.
Oh, thank the Lord, baby Jesus. I cannot wait to watch that.
I thought that would be your reaction.
I bet that's going to be amazing.
Yeah, of course.
I mean, we're going to watch it.
There's no way that's going to be pony after all this time.
No, it's got all the ingredients, isn't it?
Mhm.
Is the first one still funny?

(02:28):
I I haven't seen it in such a long time. I kind of don't want to because it it just lives in a
memory pocket in the back of my brain and it my brain pulls out quotes every now and again and I would hate to have that tainted in any way.
Again, saw it when I was a teenager. Laughed my ass off at it.
Don't know if I would get much out of it these days, but possibly. And also not the biggest fan of that era of Adam Sandler or any to be fair. He's not my guy. There is there's a couple of films that I enjoyed there. I enjoyed that when it came out. Love The Wedding Singer. I think that's like that to me rises way above anything else that he's done. It's like it's The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore. Then I don't really like anything else.
What about Airheads?
Airheads. I forgot about an Adam Sandler movie, but
yeah, I guess that's where I'm getting confused. That's more of a Brendan Fraser movie, I guess. That's a great film. That's such a funny movie. We watched it not long ago. say it holds up very well. Yeah.
Yeah. But I guess you're thinking more along the lines of like the water boy and little Nikki and Adam Sandler vehicle.
Yeah. A big your big daddy that era like the 96 to kind of 2001 specifically and still kind of going on today evidenced by the sequel as you mentioned Happy Gilmore 2. Um
I guess you could kind of call those sorts of movies a bit of an offshoot of stoner humor. It's quite similar.
Yeah. I mean, you could just put a joint in Sandler's hand and call it a stoner comedy, couldn't you? And and not change anything else apart from the fact that he has a joint or he's smoking weed in it.
I think that's that's the only qualification for Stoner movie, right? They someone at some point has to be smoking weed.
I disagree.
Okay. Well, what's your
I disagree. I think the I think the cannabis has to be a plot point.
Okay. So, why would you think that pineapple Express is a stoner movie. Then
are you joking?
Why is that? Is it a plot point when
it's named after the strain of weed that they're smoking?
Yeah, that's the name. But what's it got to do with the plot?
The fact that the bad guys can trace who it was who saw them offing arrival because of the weed that they were smoking.

(02:49):
Okay. Is that plot though?
Yes, it's integral.
Okay. Is it?
Yes.
Okay.
But is it though?
Yeah. I'm going to die on this. Hill
because I mean I'm struggling to to think about what this movie is actually about in the first place. What what is f***** going on in this?
Well, it's it's an action crime comedy also.
Oh, right. I've just remembered Seth Rogan witnessed a murder.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Did you watch this?
I did. Yeah. But you forgive me. Like that is it. That's that's the plot. And like it's a stupid comedy so it doesn't need to be like really complex or anything but I was just struggling to remember where weed factored into it. Apart from their smoking all the way through it, it's called Pineapple Express. Of course,
that's how the two protagonists know one another.
Yeah.
Is because one is the other's dealer.
All right, fair. I'm not going to die on this hill. I don't give a s***. It's a stone of comedy. Um because it had been so long since I'd seen it, I didn't really remember any of it. And I wasn't expecting the first scene where it's kind of black and white situation with James Remar with an eye patch.
Oh, yeah.
Is this our second James Remar movie? Yeah. Warriors.
I wasn't expecting that bit. Took me completely by surprise. And we watched that scene and then when that scene finished, I was thinking, oh, I wonder how this is going to to factor into the story. Nope, that's it. We're done with that plot point now. Wasn't relevant at all to the rest of the movie.

(03:10):
So, what was it was just there to for us to laugh at really, wasn't it? Billing a joint. And it was maybe it was maybe a bit of kind of commentary on the viewpoints at that time around
Yeah. I mean,
marijuana and sort of see that as them poking fun at things like Reefer Madness,
right?
Which, by the way, experienced such a boost in popularity that it had a musical remake.
Oh, cool.
In the early 2000s, which I have seen.
Any goods?
No,
not at all. But yeah, I um I like that intro mostly because of Bill her.
You're a big hater head, aren't you?
I think he's hilarious.
You do think he's hilar. I don't get that really. I And I I'm not I'm not trying to just disagree with you for the sake of it. Like that scene came on
and I know you love Haydah and you were laughing at that scene and and and that's great. I was enjoying you finding it funny. I didn't find it that funny.
That's fair.
And I don't know what's he been in that he's
funny in.
Star.
Super bad. Was he was one of the cops, wasn't he? With Seth Rogan.
Yeah, he was on SNL. Like I've not seen much. SNL. So that's
Yeah, I'm not a big SNL guy, but I think

(03:31):
sort of peak SNL for me was Bill Hayer and Kristen Wig.
Okay.
Because they always made each other laugh.
But I get I guess he's just not really my guy. Like I've I've not seen him that much, but the stuff I have seen him in, I'm like, yeah, I can take it or leave it. So it I found that that opening part quite jarring. Is that James Remar in an eye patch? Bill Hayden is doing something. I don't know. Is he actually smoking that that I mean you I think so given the performance that he's given and then it cuts to I guess Seth Rogan and he does the whole intro like he's going around serving people papers cuz that's his job.
He's a process server. Yeah,
that's right. And did you I thought that there was a couple of os to some Jim Kerry films in this. I don't know if you picked up on any of that
such as
well the the opening after the the hater part you cut to Rogan and he's doing the like a montage of him going about his day what he does during the day. He smokes a lot of weed.
Yep.
What a surprise. And it's just kind of a montage. And I thought, well, that's similar to the opening of Pet Detective where he's
Oh, what's he doing in that actually? He's kicking the the box, isn't he? Along the street. Maybe it's not the same at all. Anyway,
it's been too long since I've seen it. I couldn't possibly say.
It's not been that long for me. Um, so let's pretend that that's exactly like Pet Detective to back up my my my point.
Okay.
There's also another point point in the movie early on where he has a jacket and he kind of spins it around and then puts it on in like one smooth moment which is very cable guyes. I mean the only reason I know that is cuz I do that now and I have done it ever since 1996 when I saw the cable guy.
That's what they were doing in Karate Kid Legends.
Were they doing it doing that in that
the the coat on coat off?
Oh
was like the new wax on wax off.
I guess so. Yeah. As a substitute for karate as Daniel Laruso would say. How many times did he say karate? And why is he saying it like that? now

(03:52):
it's in his contract. It's just I don't think he can pronounce it any other way these days. It's just become an affectation.
Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, a couple of nods to some Jim Kerry stuff I thought um which was interesting. I do think that at least some of it would have been intentional cuz I mean Kerry's one of the greats, right? He's one of the great comedic actors, but the original Pet Detective was one of the funniest things I ever saw when I was a kid. Doesn't hold up quite as well now
for for one glaringly obvious reason. Yeah,
that's it.
But you can kind of go f***** when Age calls. But anyway, going off topic slightly.
So slightly. Yeah.
Yeah. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were sort of putting a little nod to him. But do you think we we don't really have a Jim Kerry, do we these days? We don't have anyone that's I mean go back to the 90s again. You had you Paulie Shores, you had Jim Car's uh uh into the 2000s is Rogan kind of filling that spot of your leading comedy actor.
Yeah, I mean I guess
it's different because he's a straight
everybody who was in This is the end. So
yeah,
Jay Barishell, Jonah Hill,
like all that lot. Michael Sarah, but they they're growing up now.
Yeah.
And they're not doing the same kind of projects. So who do we have?
I don't I don't think we really have anyone now. We John Cena. No,
is he's
he is funny. He's got very good comic timing. I will never You won't hear me disagreeing, but I don't know, man.
We don't You're right. We don't really have it. John Cena was a bit of a stretch just cuz he's in my favorite comedy of the last 5 years. Ricky Staniki.
Stop talking about Ricky Staniki.
But I don't think we really have a Someone's going to comment on this and go, "Oh, what about this person?" I'm going to go, "Oh, yeah, actually."

(04:13):
Maybe we're just Yeah, maybe we're out of touch and we just don't know. Oh,
I But we we go to see everything at the cinema. So I don't I don't know. Maybe there is some maybe there's some random YouTube channel that everyone's laughing at these days that we're not a part of.
In a perfect world for me it would be the guys from Silicon Valley and TJ Miller wouldn't have turned out to be a d*******.
Yeah. Yeah. That's
like in a perfect world Thomas Middle and Ben Schwarz would be
Yeah.
at the peak of um comedy actors.
Yeah. They would be They would be who I would vote for to be pumping out those sorts of projects these days. Yeah, definitely.
Camil Nanjani, why why are they not
Yeah.
dominating?
Well, Camille's had to get super buff and being a superhero movie.
He had to Yeah.
Middle Ditch and Schwarz Well, Schwarz is making all of the money on Sonic now.
Mhm.
Um, Middle Ditch doesn't do a lot. I'm guessing that he probably made enough money from Silicon Valley and is like, I don't really
just go to Renaissance fairs and Yeah, stream himself gaming for the rest of his life.
Yeah, he can just kind of do what he wants. And then occasionally you'll get a middle middle ditch and Schwarz impro improv show.
But I think I think you're right. In like the last batch that we had was Seth Rogan and Friends and by extension James Franco.
Yeah,
let it be said we do not like James Franco at Shoot the Hostage. I think he's a massive wanker, but he's funny.

(04:34):
Honestly, like it's kind of annoying. and frustrating to watch some of his performances cuz they're they're not all great. There are there are some which are not good, but I feel like he was one of these actors that I talking about him like he's dead. He's still alive. I just wish he was dead.
That's a different thing entirely.
But he's one of those actors I think that took chances on whether it was on in the project that he was taking on or in a characterization that he chose to to go with. So, and sometimes that worked and sometimes cuz that didn't I think it really worked here in this movie. I think that he
for me
is probably the funniest character in this.
I think you're right.
A couple that I do think gives some good performances. And there's some people that I think were wasted.
And I, you know, I hate to give the man credit, but I think it's I don't think it's so much the writing. I think it is the performance
cuz I know that um obviously Seth Rogan co-wrote this
with um Evan Evan Goldberg.
Did he? was it? And
I don't know why I'm surprised they always team up to write things.
Jar as well. I think Japetel came up with the initial nugget of the idea and then they all kind of wrote it together.
So you think it's more the performance then rather than the writing as far as Franco is concerned?
I think so because um Seth Rogan did kind of write Saul with him playing him in mind
himself rather. I'm I'm not
Yeah, I know, man.
I'm boiling up.
Rogan is the the the soul character. Yeah, this is the height of UK Summer again and my brain's melting and it's dripping out my ears, so deal with it. Um, yeah, but but he kind of came to the realization that Franco was much funnier in that role.
Well, I think Franco read the script and said and assumed that he was going to be the Rogan. I can't remember his name.
The only reason I remember their names are because they are illiterative. It's Saul Silver and Dale Denton.

(04:55):
Dale, right?
They named them. They used the superhero naming. Nice.
Right. So, but Franco read it and apparently just assumed that they wanted him for the Dale character, but went back to him and said, "You know what? I would like to play the sole character, but and whoever had him in mind for a part said, well, no, we envisaged you for the sole character anyway." So, he's very happy with that.
I can't imagine it the other way round cuz Rogan is I I really like Seth Rogan. I I like what he's about, particularly lately. We watched a studio a few months ago. We we sort of binged that in a week or two.
Mh. and it's the one of the I think the funniest show that I've seen in years. I thought it was absolutely great. And he's central to that, but he's not like a he's often more of a straight character. Like he can be silly,
but he's never like I don't know. Would you use the term goofy? I don't know if I would use the term goofy for him. It's but the more the comedy stuff that I get from him is more that he
is uh sometimes maybe out of his depth.
Yeah. Neurotic.
Neurotic is Perfect. Yeah.
Yeah. It's funny because when I think about him, when I conjure a picture of Seth Rogan in my mind, Goofy is something that I probably would associate with him. But thinking about it, you're absolutely right. He's not often like the the full-on goofball. Even going all the way back to Freaks and Geeks, which would have been the first thing I saw him in, I think he was like 16 in that obviously alongside James Franco again. And he was he was the stoner. But it was like these asserbic little quips. He wasn't like it wasn't rockous laughter.
So yeah, he has always maintained a bit of that straight man and even all the way up to the studio. He's which he's very funny in,
but he's not he's not a very physical performer. It's more about the script.
Does that make sense?
I I do I do find him to be somewhat of a physical actor, but it It's more from it more stems from the as you say the neurosis that he he presents and his panic. That's what I enjoy about that particular character anyway and the things that he does in that show. Not going to spoil it. Huge recommend. Definitely watch it.
But it's that character is again seems to be out of his his depth somewhat. How is he going to get out of this situation? Oh, he's making it worse. And that's kind of the the thing about that show.
Yeah. And but that's that's kind of his thing. here as well.
I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. Although I think he is ironically as a producer, as a movie producer, more likable than he is in this movie.
It's funny, isn't it?
Bell ending it. I hate him in this and that's something I struggled with.
Right. So, my major stumbling block with this character with Saul uh not Saul with Dale Denton is initially in the script his girlfriend Angie was supposed to be an adult woman similar in age um who had a full-time job, was quite professional,
god forbid,

(05:16):
but they were a little bit scared that the dynamic between the two um looked like they were ripping off Shaun of the Dead.
What?
So, yeah.
How?
I don't know. So, then they kind of did away with that and wrote her much younger.
That's a weird decision to me.
And did Franco write that bit?
Oh, god. Don't Maybe Um, but while I think it is funny that this grown man is in a relationship with a high schooler because it's pathetic, you're you're very much laughing at him, it's still like I don't know. I don't think the movie necessarily condemns it enough.
That's what I got from it cuz when when we got to that point and I found out that completely forgotten all of this by the way on my from my first viewing, but when it got to that point and you find out that he's dating Amber Heard who's a a child 17. She's 17 or something.
Well, she she's not going to be any older than 18 for sure.
Yeah. But Rogan's actually in the school. Like he's walking and I just thought that's a weird scenario to me. Like it's not that old this film. I suppose it's getting on for almost two decades now. Really?
I was surprised. I was surprised. I didn't think it was that old.
Yeah. But um but yeah, no, I I and I think I turned to you and was like, "Oh, so he's dating a child then?"
Yes. He He's a loser character. You're meant to I I suppose you are sort of meant to root for him which is which makes it slightly confusing.
It's a curious decision. Yeah, cuz he he is the protagonist.
He doesn't like you say doesn't really get condemned for it. He kind of makes the decision that in at the end of the movie that I I he doesn't really want to be with her. Kind of they sort of brush over it a bit, but it's not like there's no realization there that he's dating a child. It's just
Yeah. that he's a bad person.
Yeah. And you're meant to sort of be rooting for this character the whole way along. And it gets to the end And it's just like, oh, okay. Well, that's over there. Well, that character, I don't think that character even needed to be in it. That's the thing. I don't think it' been different at all had she not been in it. Maybe we wouldn't have had Ed Begley Jr., which would be
a a sorry state of affairs, but
I don't know. I'll take that sacrifice for not having a child/ adult relationship in this movie.
I agree with you.

(05:37):
And I I actually think the film would be improved by removing that element because it would also make it shorter.
Again, why way too long for a comedy.
And I know this isn't a Jud Appatile movie, but it it's sort of a Jud Appatile movie. He produced it, right?
In length, it's a
But that's what I mean. Every comedy that Jud Appatile has anything to do with tends to be pushing the 2hour mark, if not longer.
I feel like the first time did he do Forgetting Sarah Marshall?
Um, I'm actually not sure. I would say probably most likely yes, cuz uh cuz Um what's his name? Jason
Seagull.
Seagull I would say. Yes.
Another Freaks and Geeks alumni.
Yeah.
But yeah, everything that he does that's a comedy is way too long. I think comedy for me at the top end hour and 45 and that's pushing it which some some people might find strange but I think you do risk just too much of the same thing. I thought this was really baggy this this film. I sort of struggled with the length of it and I I'm similar similar to you for there are different shades of comedy. I think some of the the appet stuff of the last 15 years or so has been more steering into like dramdy area where you've got the like some good drama. King of Stanton Island is a good example of that. It's very funny but it's also there's quite a lot of drama in it and sad sad timely stuff where you figure out why he's putting tattoos on children
and also that was like two hours but it earned it.
Yeah. But that's what there's more substance to it. But but when I'm I would class Pineapple Express as a really stupid like the only reason this exists is to make you laugh and no other f****** reason.
Yeah. This is not going to leave you thinking.
Exactly. So and I don't I don't want that to be more than 90 minutes. I think just for if
comedies are for me anyway really uh subjective. It's maybe the most subjective. Like what you find funny is different to what I find funny. And to what whoever's listening, if you that we're all different. We all find different things funny. So I I think it's might be the most subjective type of movie because for me, a comedy just needs to make me laugh. And if it doesn't make me laugh, then it's not a good comedy. But someone else might watch it and go, "That really made me laugh. That is a good comedy." And there's not really like a movie can be really s*** like really poorly made, poorly edited, poorly shot. If it's funny, none of that other stuff matters to me. I I you know, Bird Demick, The Room, unintentional comedy, but comedy nonetheless. Uh, and it's a like a poorly made film, like it doesn't really matter about anything else. So, when it's a pure comedy, I think it needs to be uh sharp and quick and in and out and needs to make you laugh, concise, and then you get to the end like, "Oh, is it over already? I wish I wish I I wanted more of this."
Yeah, I think I'm in agreement. I think I'm in agreement there.
I thought this is meant to be a stupid don't really think about it comedy and it's an hour and 50 minutes long.
Yeah. I'd never really thought about that being like I guess it is the most subjective genre because obviously I'm thinking about like my preference which is horror and I guess you could say the intention of a horror movie is to frighten you, which horror movies don't really do anymore. They haven't done for a while. I'm forever chasing that feeling, but I never get it. But it doesn't mean that the film if it doesn't scare me has been a waste of time or is unenjoyable.
Yeah, true.

(05:58):
But with a comedy that's different.
If you watch a comedy and it hasn't made you laugh, then it's a failure.
You're not going to be like But it was still good.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's that Yeah, that's interesting.
And there are different levels as well. There can be like a like we go back to the Appetail stuff. There's some really laugh out loud moments in a lot of his movies, but then some of them for me are like oh like maybe a light chuckle or a little smile or or not even any reaction. at all, but you're enjoying the characters and they're kind of kind of amusing could be another way to describe some of them. Doesn't always need to be laugh out loud funny, but in something like this, then uh then absolutely I think um it needs to be it just like it needs to be a scatter gun approach of jokes like you're going to laugh every every couple of minutes or so.
Spray and pray.
Spray and I didn't get that from this. I did laugh a few moments in it and maybe most of it was Franco.
Before we plow on, I do Want to talk a little bit about David Gordon Green?
Oh yeah. D GG.
DGG. We'll call him DGG from now on because
I am not the biggest fan of DGG, but I feel we need to talk about him because we've kind of we've covered the main players, but we haven't talked about the director yet.
He's got a really random filmography. I'm starting to realize.
I think I sort of had him pegged as like, oh, he's the comedy guy, but I'm wrong cuz I had a look today and actually some of his earliest films. I think the first one I would have seen was a movie called All the Real Girls. I know Zoe Des Chanel was in it. Uh Danny McBride was in it, but that would have been before I knew who the f*** Danny McBride was. He's done a film called George Washington, which sound sounds quite gritty.
Is it about George Washington?
Nope, it's actually not.
Okay.
But it's it's pretty well reviewed. He's done a couple of other thing like he did a film called Prince Avalanche which was sort of comedy leaning but more dramdy I would say. And then he's got stuff like this kind of in the in the middle of his CV. Um and obviously he's collaborated with um Danny McBride a bunch. They did Eastbound and Down, which I found reasonably funny when it first came out, but I feel like that probably hasn't aged very well. And then he started meddling in the horror genre. Now Now, I really like the first Halloween movie they did. Is it 2018?
Yeah.
They all came out in quite quick succession, didn't they?
Couple of years apart, I think. Each of them. Yeah.

(06:19):
I really enjoyed the first one. And so, I was super stoked for the second two.
I think it's my favorite Halloween movie.
That's a f****** strange take, but okay.
Sorry.
That's fine. No, I mean, if you'd said Rob Zombie's Halloween was your favorite Halloween movie, then we might have had issues.
Yeah.
But that's fine. I wouldn't say that to your face.
Don't Are you Are you like pushing for an argument right now?
No, I said I wouldn't say it
to my face.
Yeah,
but yeah. And then the second two came out and the second one I thought was absolute garbage. I feel like we watched that in the middle of the pandemic. Maybe we rented it or did like a an HBO Max VPN job or something.
We We would have done if it was legal. Yeah.
Um, yep. Just ignore everything I just said. Um, and then the third one, we went to see this at the cinema.
Now, I hated the second one. I was kind of a lowkey defender of the third one.
Yeah, I didn't mind the third one.
A lot of people really, really hated that one.
It was bizarre.
It was a strange movie, but I kind of respected what they did
and the fact that they kind of
replicated the vibes of what the f the original first three movies.

(06:40):
Yeah.
Like the third one wasn't about Michael Myers, so it sort of made sense to me.
Um and then he did was it The Exorcist believer
which was trash in my opinion. Obviously, if you enjoy it, I'm stoked for you. I wish I had. But it was so poorly received that he kind of made his excuses and backed out of the the future Exorcist movies. making more.
Well, he was supposed to be doing an Exorcist trilogy in the same way that he did with Halloween, I believe. Anyway, I think that was the the plan originally, and I would love to know the official reasons that they gave, but it was bound to be a financially motivated, and b because everybody took a dump on it cuz it was terrible.
Yeah.
Um, and I don't know what he's doing at the moment, but hopefully he's going to find another genre to meddle in.
So, what's the best David Gordon Green movie then, in your opinion? It might be the first Halloween.
Oh, my favorite. Anyway,
not Pineapple Express then.
No.
Okay.
Which I do enjoy it.
I do enjoy Pineapple Express, but I wouldn't call it his best movie. No.
What about you?
I would say quite easily Halloween movie. Oh god. I could not stand Your Highness. It wasn't great.
It was terrible.
That was Franco as well, wasn't it?
Franco McBride, I think, wasn't it?
Right.
And I didn't It took It wasn't until about about three or four years ago when I I saw the cover on I was just doing a a letter boxed rabbit hole or something and came across it not in that way and then uh I I read the title your highness and it didn't click to me that the word high in it is in relation to the drug.

(07:01):
Mhm.
I didn't your highness.
I didn't realize that until a couple of years ago. But yeah, I did watch that when it came out and not not not good not good. Not not for me. And also I think um I think Danny McBride is not really my guy either. I I can't really think of a thing that he's done that I really enjoy. I'm not saying like there are I think he's a very talented comedic actor, but I can't think of anything really that he's been in that really makes me laugh and and purely entertained. I never saw his bound and down. What What else might he have done that that that I might like? I can't think of
I honestly don't know.
He was in Alien Covenant with um James Franco. I have a controversial take. You've said you think he's a talented comedian. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think he's good at one thing
and that's being a a very loud and aggressive moron. He plays that character very well.
The thing with with McBride is that I sort of enjoy his thing for a minute. Yeah.
And it's like, oh yeah, he's just an obnoxious, loud guy that thinks he's right about things. And that's kind of amusing for about a minute.
But I was very surprised because when we got to McBride in in Pineapple Express, there's me thinking, "Okay, now it's time for another Danny McBride show." But he's doing something quite different in this
for a change. Yeah. But he's still doing the same delivery.
Quite flat, isn't it? Quite flat. Quite matterof fact.
idiotic.
I didn't think he was that loud in this. Was he loud?
I Maybe I'm just mixing it all with his other performances. cuz he tends to be.
I mean, yeah, I know he tends to be in general. I just I remember being quite struck by how different he was in this movie.
I think he is more likable in this than pretty much anything else he's been in.
Yeah. And it's weird, isn't it? Because he is the character that is constantly flip-flopping about grassing up his mates and potentially getting them killed and then going to help them and rescue them and then pulling out of that and then he's backwards and forwards.
The Terminator, he's unkillable. Yeah. Yes. I So, I didn't mind his performance in this. I actually quite enjoyed it. I I I think I think there are some good performances in this. I think if you didn't have There's maybe three people in this that I thought were very very good.
Okay.
Franco.
Mhm.

(07:22):
McBride.
Yep.
Robinson. Craig Robinson I thought was excellent.
Yeah.
And um
and he's the reason that if people ask me if I've seen a movie, I say I seen it.
Okay. Okay,
that's where that came from.
Is it from Hot Tub Time Machine?
No, it's from Pineapple Express.
Oh, the movie that we watched. Yeah,
I do think Craig Robinson is very funny.
He is funny and he's he's he's good in this. And I I wasn't expecting to see him. I suspect that when I first saw Pineapple Express, didn't know the f*** Craig Robinson was really late to the party on Office US, all of that stuff. So, yeah, probably didn't know who he was and was when I saw him, his name popped up in the credits. I thought, "Oh, good. I really like that Scottish late night TV talk show host. He's really funny." I think I always get them mixed up. Um, but yeah, and then when he appeared on screen, pleasantly surprised, very good, very funny. So, yeah, I think that a couple of people kind of stole a show in this and if they weren't in it, I think this would might be borderline unwatchable.
Wow, that bad.
If if if Rogan was playing the Franco character
and Franco someone else was playing Dale and you didn't have Robinson, you didn't have McBride. I think this might be a terrible terrible movie. Um,
maybe
maybe that's I don't know. Maybe that's a hot take. Does this this tends to be quite well regarded?
Well, it's funny you say that. I always comedy. Yeah, I always thought it was, but when I looked on letter boxed earlier today,
almost everybody that I follow has seen it and logged it.
Everyone's seen it.

(07:43):
But yeah, but the The ratings are wildly different with a lot of them at like two and a half to three or three and a half. They're all somewhere around that middle.
Yeah. Which I think is fair. Like like go back again.
I would give it a three.
Okay. Well, that's
I think I did.
That's successful. That's that's fine. Like that. We all spoke about this many times. Have different ways of rating things. For me, it's usually purely entertainment. In comedies, it's just by how how it made me laugh. So, I would put this probably lower lower than that because it didn't make me laugh a great deal somewhat. But I think that middle range is probably it seems like it's about right because it's not a terrible movie and there are some good things, good performances and things to enjoy in it. It just sort of boils down to how it how much it makes you laugh, I guess. I I thought it was quite well regarded. I thought people loved this movie.
I don't think people loved it. No, I I wonder if some of that is people going back and reappraising it through a more modern lens. likely to
I mean yeah I I guess I guess that's what we are doing isn't it to a degree I think uh what I think going back again the the thing that that's most um alarming about this film is the dating the the the teenager thing but I don't yeah that is a big problem that is that is a big problem for me because
I wouldn't say they endorse the practice of
dating no I don't think they do I just don't think they go far enough in that character. Agreed. Like
when I when we pointed it out and you were like, "Yeah, he is a loser." Like that's I and I think that the the inclusion of that is to kind of underline how much of a loser he is.
Oh, absolutely. It's definitely to sort of poke fun at Dale and go he can't get a woman his own age. He can only manipulate a a a child.
Yeah.
Like that is part of the And and isn't that sort of
something that the one of the teachers says cuz Going back to you talking about a lot of the side characters being the highlights. Um, we obviously get Joe Joe Latulio.
Oh, is that the teacher guy that was in? I know his face.
Brooklyn 999. I love you, man. Like he's he crops up in a bunch of stuff,
right? Slapping the Biss,
but I think he's quite funny. Um,
yeah, he's all right, actually.
How do you feel about Kevin Corrian as well? I think the I think the combination of him and Craig Robinson as like the two heavies was pretty inspireing. Yeah, that worked pretty well. He was He had less to do comedically, I guess. Again, bit of a straight man,

(08:04):
but it was I I found his delivery to be quite funny.
Yeah, it was okay. I mean, I could any I feel like anyone maybe could have been that character.
Oh, really?
Yeah. Maybe. I mean, maybe I'm selling it a bit short here. I'm not an actor. I'm sure it's very hard. I'm sure you all work very hard sitting in your f****** gold trailers. here.
I had to wait for 4 hours in your trailer under your duvet. We had to work down mine.
Did you?
Yeah. Well, I didn't.
Get up and lip road wit song.
Exactly. I didn't have to do those things. Like I I work in an office.
Yeah.
But it's hard.
Mhm.
I don't have a trailer.
Um but yeah, I I Yeah, I guess I wasn't blown away by that character really but Could be that that character needed to be more straight in order for the other stuff to work.
I think so. Yeah.
And often as a straight man, people kind of underestimate the importance of that. I I feel like cuz you you need that
that contradiction or that kind of opposite to the silly guy.
Neither of them are funny.
Yeah, exactly. So maybe Yeah, maybe it works way more. I tell you who like why the f*** put Rosie Perez in this movie?
I was just going to say how do you feel about the villains? Like so we've got Rosie And we've got Gary Cole.
Gary Cole is is in this movie.

(08:25):
Yes.
And he is the man.
He's Ted.
Who is the man?
Did you watch this movie?
Yes.
He's like the main guy who's at war with the Asians.
Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, he's he's um the guy that Rogan uh sees shooting the the the rival the rival gang person. And then Perez is the cop who's assisting that. She's a corrupt cop. Corrupt police officer. Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh
and she asked for a lot of her lines to be cut cuz she thought that her character would be a little bit more menacing without as much dialogue.
I don't think you need to have a menacing character in this stupid comedy.
No. And there aren't any. I don't think she's menacing.
No, she's not. I think that's a bit of a misjudgment on her part.
Maybe, but she was sort of pretty widely mocked. in the ' 90s for having like this high-pitched kind of grating voice.
So maybe she internalized some of that criticism, which would be sad if that were the case.
Yeah, you're that's funny. I never really thought about it, but thinking back to some of the movies that she was in in the '9s, maybe I've just got Nick Cage on the brain, but was she perhaps in what was that lottery movie called? It could happen to you. Maybe when Nick Cage is a policeman and he gives half of his winnings to a waitress, but I feel like his
wife was Rosie Perez, I think.
Oh, right. Okay.
But yeah, you're right. In that movie, she was kind of the, you know, elbow elbow in the in the stomach. She's a pain in the ass, she like ball and shame.
Yeah. Yeah. I think it was a little bit of that.

(08:46):
Yeah. And believe it or not, Gary Cole came to the project a little bit later because they were Well, Brian Cranston was sort of in the running for the role of Ted. Oh, I want the Brian Cranston version of this.
Right. But the irony is that Jud Appattow in his vast wisdom
couldn't see it.
Said that he couldn't see him as a villainous drug dealer the same year that Breaking Bad started. What does Jud Appatan know? Nothing.
I think that Vince Gilligan took that statement and set fire to it
and said, "Hold my beer, Jud."
Yeah. Uh, one of the best performances in TV history.
Cranston can do it all.
Cranston's great.
Why would you doubt him?
You're so right. He's very funny. He's got really good He's really good dramatic actor,
but I think because he did um Malcolm in the Middle, he was he was a sitcom actor for such a long time.
I've never seen the show, but you've seen it. He's like a bumbling dad, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
That stereotouch kind of dad wearing a cardigan like doesn't know what what what c*** he means.
Sure. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I didn't until the other day, so
every day is a school day.
Yeah.
But yeah, as if you would doubt that man, his range.
I think maybe this film might be improved by about 17% had Brian Cranston been in that role

(09:07):
at least. Which is not to say that Gary Cole did a bad job,
but it was nothing.
But it but it wasn't
it was just a villain. It was it was nothing.
It's not a performance you would pick out and go that was great. Whereas I think Cranston could have really taken it there.
I think so. I And and maybe there may perhaps there might have been more interesting stuff going on between Perez and Cranston. I don't interested to know what Lions of Perez's was were dropped. Yeah.
Are we saying Perez's?
I think so.
Okay. Uh yeah, cuz I thought she was I watched this and I quite like Rosie Perez. Like I think she's kind of an actor that I grew up with in go back to the 90s again and she was always sort of popping up in things and I quite liked her or not always like the characters, but I enjoyed her performances and things. And when I saw that she was going to be in this, I thought, "Yeah, that's good cast." And I saw as the police officer, I thought, "Yeah, yeah, this is good." But then she gets kind of I felt like she kind of got short changed in that role.
She's kind of sidelined a little bit.
It's interesting to know that she she um asked for for lines to be cut. And I wonder what they were exactly. Were they silly, funny lines? I mean, I I gather they probably were if she wanted to appear a little bit more menacing, but I don't think that this movie really needs a menacing character.
I like there are no stakes in this film. It's not like you need
a really threatening villain to buy into it. It's not like you're sitting here going, "My god, I wonder what's going to happen." Like it's it's not that kind of film.
So yeah, I don't know. But at the same time, including her lines would have made it past the 2hour mark. So
Well, that's true. But there's other stuff that you could have cut out. I think I was very surprised by how much There was in this in this film.
It got criticized for how gory it was actually.
Did it?
Yeah.
Is it gory? I suppose it is
for a stoner comedy. It's the the two generally aren't don't go hand in hand.
I I don't It didn't work fully for me. The the action and the comedy. Uh if you'd have asked me a week ago is if um Pineapple Express is a comedy or an action movie, I what you're talking about is a comedy. I had no idea or memory of how much action there was in it. And it didn't fully work for me. The action I found it often it went on for a while and wasn't very interesting and I felt like they could have saved a lot of that and maybe poured more energy into the comedy side of it.

(09:28):
Didn't fully work for me. The action stuff.
Okay, that's fair. Um, did you know that Seth Rogan rolled all of the prop joints?
Um, unsurprising.
Even the cross joint.
Yeah. Yeah,
that was his invention.
That's interesting. Interesting. I've never made one of those
myself. Yeah.
Well, I'm not sure. shocked because you've never done any any drugs.
No. No. And I haven't made one of those. And I haven't made a Trident joint either.
Trident.
Similar. Similar. I've never done that either. Or a Dutch tulip. Ever heard of a Dutch tulip?
I've never heard of a Dutch tulip.
Well, I haven't either.
What is it?
It's I don't know. It's I don't know.
Are you going to send me to Urban Dictionary and I'm going to have to live with the regret for the rest of my life?
It's when you s*** in your hand and throw it at someone's face or something. If you told me that under any other circumstances, I might have believed you. Do you know what the inspiration for the script was?
Was it a pineapple?
No.
No. Then

(09:49):
it was apparently Brad Pitt's character from True Romance.
Oh, yeah. Okay.
Which I thought was quite interesting
cuz he's a stoner guy, isn't he? He's laying on the sofa of
someone in that movie.
Gary Oldman, isn't he?
Is it? Is it Gary Old? So far,
it's been a while since I've seen it.
Yeah. I don't know. Again, another movie that I don't love.
I did love it for a long time, but the last time I watched it, I was like, "Oh, this hasn't aged as well as I I thought it had."
No.
And I don't think it's even Tarantino at its best. So, yeah, that one went down in my estimation sadly. But, um, but I can see the I can see the commonalities. I can see where they got the inspiration from.
Yeah. I mean, he's a stoner,
so there you go. Did you know that this was the first Stoner movie to ever gross over 100 million?
I knew that it grossed over 100 million actually. Um, but I did not know it was the first and surely only.
I I don't think there's been any since that would have surpassed it.
Uh, 25 million budget.
Yeah, they wanted 50, but the studio went f*** off
right
for this
cuz it's a weed movie apparently. That's what they said. Yeah.

(10:10):
Yeah.
But uh Yeah, it did. very very well and they were thinking about a sequel for a while.
Well, I heard that um Jud Appatile wanted to sort of merge this with the Super Bad universe and do a sequel to both of them in one.
How is that possible when Rogan is a copper in that?
I've got no idea. Maybe he would play dual roles.
Maybe they just didn't think about it and it was an off-the- cuff remark he made in an interview once.
Yeah, probably. I just never thought about it since.
Yeah. Or before.
Yeah.
I just uh was just looking at my notes here. Right. One of the things that I wrote down is that the pre-production involved extensive research on marijuana culture and drugrelated crimes to ensure authenticity in the film.
Drugrelated crimes.
Yeah.
Such as
smoking weed.
That's the crime. I don't think that's the crime they had in mind. But I just wondered how far that research stretched. I'm assuming for Seth Rogan he got very in method on this in this role.
I imagine he didn't need to Dan
on account of
just regular lifestyle.
A thousand joints in his pocket.
Yes,
I would imagine. Although James Franco did not smoke weed.

(10:31):
Really? I was surprised to know.
I know.
Maybe. Do you know what? Maybe he should.
Yeah,
maybe that's the problem. I Yeah, I I'm not going to disagree.
Yeah, maybe that would fix a number of things.
I wonder what the drug rellated crime I did no research. It's just a statement I wrote down.
Oh, cool.
So, yeah, drugrelated crimes. I mean, what obviously the um
I mean the people end up dead.
People end up dead. You're absolutely right. But
there are like big crimes in this movie.
There's murder.
Mhm.
And that is a big crime.
Yeah.
They uh that's the main point in this film, isn't it? is the witness of the murder and the kind of the the gang thing which is
well they keep calling them the Asians.
Yeah.
And they do sort of address that that is a bit racist in the movie.
Okay.

(10:52):
Um cuz they're South Koreans apparently. Um there's just some familiar faces. We get a Ken Jong
and Bobby Lee.
Bobby Lee. Yeah.
Yeah.
Um prefame I'm guessing. I don't when the hangover was. When did community start?
Uh I don't know. You're the community guy.
Yeah, I can't
2004.
No, it can't be that early. I refuse to believe.
2005.
I refuse to believe it.
But anyway, yeah, some familiar faces. Um yeah, it's so going back to something you said earlier, the bit at the beginning with Bill Hayer that you said didn't connect to anything.
Yeah,
I'm not saying it does connect to anything, but in the climax, like the shootout and the fight, At the end, the the downstairs room where I guess is the growhouse, there are suits hung up on the wall that are the same sort of robot looking biohazard suits that the guys were wearing at the beginning.
Okay.
And it in fact it was the same location,
right?
But I don't know if that's just budget constraints like they used it for the beginning bit and then they just redid it.
I reckon that they had that location for the final act.
Mhm.
And all of a sudden, Bill Hayer was free and mates with someone and he went,

(11:13):
"So, you don't even think that was scripted?"
No. Right.
How can it be? Cuz it's got nothing to do with anything else.
Well, they don't just get James Remar on the fly, right?
Well, that's true. But it felt very bolted on to me and I I reckon they were just in that location
and they went, "We need a funny way of opening this movie because the montage stuff which we spoke about at the beginning where Rogan's going through the motions with his job, not very funny. And I imagine they probably wanted to open with a a comedic moment.
I thought that was mildly amusing. Just the notion that everybody hates process servers. Nobody likes being subpoenaed.
Sub poena.
Yes. And the I guess the joke is that he's having to disguise himself in infarious setups
just to get access to these people cuz if if you tell them like you have to hand the paperwork over I believe you can't just like post it you have to take it to them in person.
Yeah.
And if they were to get wind of who you are and run away that would present a problem
right
so hence all these disguises
I see.
So that kind of tickled me.
I wasn't guffing but I was mildly amused. Okay. Well, I take it back then. I I
But at the same time, I I love the Bill Hater bit. I don't find it as disconnected.
I know. I know you do. I think it was about 10 minutes before I actually laughed in this movie, and it was when Franco appeared.
Oh, no.
And he did a did a did a It's when he was repeating what he saw on a television. I forget what it was. It was something about a hurricane,

(11:34):
but he kept repeating it. And I thought it was very funny the way he delivered that.
Um,
we're very different, aren't we?
In some ways, we are. In some ways, we're very similar. And some ways we're very different, but that's you don't want to be exactly the same, do you?
No. Different.
I'm not suggesting that.
No. Exactly.
Um, there's some curious dialogue as well, like in the middle of the film with Danny McBride's character. I think he says uh the words melon farmers or like they messed with the wrong melon farmers.
Okay. Which curious thing to say, but apparently
he's thinking of pineapples. Oh, it should be pineapple farmers.
No, it's So, what it is is, you know, if there's a TV edit of a movie
where the swears are toned down or like if a film is shown on a plane, they like the common dub for m************ is melon farmers,
is it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Cuz I guess same syllables.
Melon farmer. I guess it looks
doesn't sound as cool.
But when you like if you're just looking at someone's lips move, it probably looks the same. And that's the the idea of it, I guess.
Yeah. So that's where that came from.
Okay. So, some of the some of the strange decisions did have some reasoning behind it.

(11:55):
Did you know that James Franco actually injured Danny McBride during one of those scenes?
No, I didn't. And I wish it was the other way around.
So, when he bashes Danny McBride over the head with the bong, apparently they'd they kind of done tests, you know, obviously they're not just going to be like, "Hit him over the head with a glass bong. What could go wrong?" They'd done some tests. It was intended to just smash be relatively painless, safe, whatever. But they had water in the bong, I guess, to make it look more realistic. And that somehow changed the dynamics of it enough that it did actually injure him.
Yeah. Made it more substantial and heavy, I guess.
Well, I don't think you can't put that much water in a bong that would make it significantly heavier. I'm saying like maybe it changed the physics of it or something. I'm not a f****** scientist. I don't know.
What do I look like, Bill Nye?
I don't know anything about bombs, so You're just going to keep going back to that, are you?
Bong is a type of drum, isn't it?
Yes. That's what the the movie Evil Bong is about. It's an evil
evil set of drums.
Evil Bong. That's a film that I don't know. Or
it's a Full Moon movie.
And that's that should mean something to me. What's a Full Moon?
Full Moon. Charles Band.
And that is a man. Is he the Did Did they do the puppet thing? Yeah, like all the puppet masters.
I only know that Dolls.
Yeah.
Killroy. He's got a bunch of franchises.
Is he Castle
Castle Freak?
Yeah. Is that him? Is that a film?

(12:16):
That's Full Moon. Yeah, that's a Steuart Gordon movie.
Oh, is it? Right. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know that because of the presence of Jeffrey Combmes and Barbara Crmpton.
Yeah.
Becomes obvious. Yeah. We listened to a podcast interview. It might have been Mick Garris. Might have been a postmortm.
Was he talking about working in Italy or something? I seem to remember. and
for some reason in my mind he they their studio was in a castle but I might just be thinking of castle freak
maybe
an Italian castle. Are there even castles in Italy? It's in Europe so I suspect that there probably are.
But are there as many castles in Italy as there are in the UK?
Why would I know that?
I don't know. It's just a It's just a question.
We're here to talk about Pineapple Express. Surprisingly enough, how many castles there are in Europe isn't in my notes. Dan,
it's It's fun when you go on tangents, I think, in in on a podcast and you talk about different things and I feel like we don't go on enough tangents that it's usually always related at least to movies, but I think that we should introduce some more random stuff like
geographical facts.
Yeah,
is what you're suggesting.
Architecture.
How much how much mileage can we get out of a flying buttress?
I think this might be all you, you know.

(12:37):
Yeah,
maybe you should start a second podcast.
Well, Should we call it the flying buttress? I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah. I do it with that bloke from Grand Designs. What's his name? Kevin Ferstein or whatever.
I haven't got a clue.
Yeah. He seems like a knob as well. Anyway, unless you're listening, you're probably a nice guy. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. But he seems like a dick, don't he?
So, Pineapple Express. I'm trying. I'm trying so very hard.
Go on. Pull me back in. Go on.
Pineapple Express.
What are your thoughts? We get to the end. There's the big shootout. Danny McBride comes back because he's unkillable. He's Michael Myers.
Interesting. Yeah. Interesting link there as well. Yeah.
I um because he wrote Halloween.
No, I get it.
Yeah.
Uh I I I think I got a bit sick of the action in this film. I felt like I do really like an action comedy.
Well, yeah. That's why it surprises me to hear you say that.
Yeah. I think um
What did you get sick of?
I don't I just don't think the action was very good
and I felt like

(12:58):
I could feel the lack of budget perhaps. That's what it was.
I It felt like there was maybe a lack of preparation there and and perhaps the action wasn't taken that seriously and I don't mind that. I It doesn't bother me so much, but then maybe they have less action in it. And I felt like some of the scenes went on for too long and it wasn't particularly entertaining. Again, subjective. This is me. But I thought maybe it tried to do a bit too much. I feel like it was maybe a bit ambitious to to make an action comedy on a 25 million budget. I think what's and and does Rogan do much action? The the only other thing
he's not an action guy. No,
he's not an action guy.
He did take up yoga to limber up for this movie though.
Okay, I take it back. He isn't actually an an action guy then on account of
flying dog that he did or whatever it was.
I do feel like um yoga is probably the most appropriate form of exercise for a stoner.
Yeah, probably the um Um, the only thing that I could think of that perhaps comes closest to this movie in terms of other Rogan movies is The Green Hornet cuz that is an action comedy.
Um,
slash comic book superhero movie.
Yeah, I guess so.
Which nobody has ever seen or thought about in 18 years.
I've seen it. I
I've seen it too,
but I don't think it was
I don't remember it being very good. I think it was well I think it was a bit of a notorious flop if I remember correctly.
Well then we missed the boat on that one then. We should have covered it last season.
Should have covered it in flops. But as we discussed in that season, we're going to do flops every every 10 seasons.
Every decade. I thought you were going to say every 10 years.
But so yeah, I just it's funny how I can only think of kind of two Rogan action comedies and I don't really like either of them very much.

(13:19):
He's not he's not the go-to.
He's a comedy. I really like Seth Rogan.
He seems like a cool individual and I and I like the fact that he's kind of he does seem to have severed ties with James Franco after some of the allegations came out and he's spoken about it publicly.
Um doesn't seem to have massively like shied away from it, which is nice. Um and he's kind of made insinuations that he's on the right side of things. Um he was in an episode of Hacks I think in the most recent season, was it season four?
Did you finish that in the end?
I did. Yeah. But there's um there's a scene where he's on a late night talk show and they're playing like celebrity strip poker and he is losing drastically and he's down to his boxers and they're like, "No, the boxers have to go." So he whips his boxes off, but he's got a second pair underneath and he says, "You can't you're not going to me to me today."
Right.
So I get the impression that he's sort of I don't know. It's interesting that he would be kind of poking fun at that. Yeah,
given what's happened. But
yeah, he does seem like a dude.
Yeah. And I just enjoy his for the most part. I I guess I probably do enjoy his movies mostly. I think
going back to a But then maybe is it the the movies where he's more of a side character? I don't know because I'm thinking of 40-year-old Virgin and Knocked Up and he's a side character in those, right?
No, Knocked Up. He's like the main guy.
Yeah. And actually thinking about it, I don't think I enjoyed Knocked Up very much, actually.
Oh, you Yeah. M okay backtracking on that immediately.
Yeah, but uh I'm really struggling. There's me going I really like Seth Rogan, but can I name you a f****** movie that he's been in that I really like?
Donny Jarko.
Yeah, but he's barely in it and I haven't seen it in years. And does it hold up? Who knows?
How do you feel about him as a serious actor? Cuz we watched a film recently called Take This Walt directed by Sarah Polly who we talked about in our Go episode.
Um and he's he's definitely not there for comic relief. That's and he's decent.
That's interesting actually. Maybe I maybe I maybe I do prefer him as a dramatic actor. He's brilliant in Steve Jobs as as Wnjak. Um and he was in other things, I think.

(13:40):
He's definitely been in other things. Yeah. Okay. So, in summation, will you ever watch Pineapple Express again?
God, no.
No.
No. I was quite bored by this. I did. I did have a couple of moments that
You're bored? I had a couple I had a couple of moments where I laughed and it was kind of kind kind of amusing. Um, mostly all James Franco related, which was very surprising to me. I thought he was going to be the most annoying part of this movie, but unfortunately ended up being one of my favorite parts.
Um, Robinson stuff, a lot of his lines I found very funny.
And Danny McBride, I didn't I don't know if I really laughed out loud at a lot of his stuff, but it was more, oh, he's not doing the McBride thing quite as much. as he usually does. And that's interesting, isn't it?
Yeah.
But in terms of I want to It doesn't make me laugh nearly as much as Ricky Stanicki. And I know I'm
I can't believe that's become our measuring stick.
I'm sort of like joking, but I'm not really because that that makes me laugh every few minutes there's another laugh in that film. And it's not great, don't get me wrong, but it's funny to me. It's very funny. And to me, this movie is not that funny. It's
it's so subjective. As you said earlier, Comedy is, as we've established, the most maybe the most subjective.
Yeah.
And so, you're either going to like it or you're not,
I suppose. So, yeah. For me, no. I I if I'm going to score this, I'm probably at like a two or something.
Okay.
Maybe maybe a Yeah. No. No. Definitely no higher than a two, right?
Cuz I found the the the plot and the actual progression of the story quite laborious.
Okay.
And it wasn't very funny to me. So, it's like, what am I really scoring it for then? I'm giving it too because some of the performances were okay.
Right.

(14:01):
Fair enough.
But what what about you for a rewatch then?
Well, I guess I'll be re-watching it on my own in future.
So, you're going you're going to go for you're going to continue to to watch this then.
I mean, it's it's never something I return to often
in terms of comedies. It's not even I wouldn't even put it in like top 20 or anything. There are so many other films I would reach for first. But, if I was somewhere and it was on TV,
I'd stick around and watch it.
Okay. I I It makes me laugh. It does the one thing for me that it doesn't do for you.
And that's the one thing that a comedy needs to do. Yeah.
It's the one thing. It makes you laugh great. And it was I found I felt a little bit broken actually when we were watching it together cuz I did notice you chuckling quite a bit and I'm like, I wish I found this funny.
Oh, as long as you weren't thinking, is my girlfriend a moron?
I would never. Um I was a bit jealous, you know, when I I sort of see people enjoying a thing, I want to enjoy it, too. just don't very much. It's annoying. But um
standards are just too high. Dan,
I don't think they are. Are they? What's my favorite comedy? Maybe Ricky Snicky.
Borat.
Maybe it's up there. I don't know what we got. Let's not get into Let's not get into that conversation. But
yeah, I I suppose comedies are not really a type of I don't go back to comedies that much these days as I used to anyway as a as a child.
Okay.
Um Books Smart is a is is a good one.
That's a really good example of a great
top five of the last last decade. I would say it's maybe Books Smart, Palm Springs, Ricky Sticki.

(14:22):
That's uh that's three if you can count.
Interesting.
Okay.
But you know, I it it's it's good to have it definitely fits in this season qualifiers
and it's good to do a kind of a mid to late 2000 movie in that it's been interesting to talk about the the setting the stoner comedy kind of things the the state of the of comedy movies kind of in that era and and that sort of thing. So it's been interesting to think about that and having now watched Pineapple Express again maybe there'll be other things in the future that we can or I me specifically I can kind of look back on Pineapple Express and think oh yeah this is kind of like that or maybe we'll do another Danny McBride movie. I can't for the life of me imagine what that's going to be. Um, but maybe we will accidentally one day do a Alien Covenant.
Maybe
maybe we just want to see James Franco on fire.
That would be that might be fun.
Any day that ends in Y.
Yeah.
I think it's a real shame that this film didn't make you laugh more because you're not going to be laughing next week.
It's been a real I was going to say roller coaster, but I the last few movies I haven't loved very much.
Less of a roller coaster, more of a haunted house this season.
Yeah. Uh so I'm hoping that I know what next movie is. I'm going to let you announce it in just a moment. Don't worry.
But uh I what I'm hoping for the next one is that it's just a good movie.
Oh, it is a good movie.
Okay. Okay. I I mean I'm hoping for that at least. But what is it?
We're covering Reququum for a Dream. Maybe the Most depressing film that I've chosen so far
ever.
Oh, is it more depressing than Come and see? That's tough.
It can't be.

(14:43):
Well, we'll discuss that next week, I guess.
All right.