I didn’t misinterpret the lyrics to the Nirvana song, Devin threw that in there as a cheap shot. I wasn’t comparing the themes of TWBB to the themes of “Heart Shaped Box,” (I know the song is about Courtney Love, duh), I was comparing the confrontational impact, artistic risk and misanthropic and existential rage in that VIDEO (not the song itself) to the film.

Obviously, Devin disagreed with parts of my review/my essay that followed directed at him: why else would he write 2,000 words about both of them? By no means was he “bashing” the review. It’s difficult to bash a review when you agree with a film’s greatness.

Superbad: The Action Movie = I didn’t base my expectations solely on this fan-made trailer—-of course, not—-however, if you watch that trailer (one of the cooler and most acclaimed fan-made creations we’ve had on Slashfilm), I feel its sense of peril and tension, things required for a great action film, was worth comparing, as it used clips from a Rogen comedy no less. Pineapple Express doesn’t know what it wants to be—it’s paying homage to several different genres, which is fine, but unlike a QT film like Kill Bill, none of them gel. Rather than be entertained, we’re supposed to be wow’d and celebrate because Rogen pulls off some generic stunts. Eddie Murphy pulled this kind of stuff off far more successfully in the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies, and he didn’t ask us to bask in his conversion from comedy to action. He also didn’t have a 5-minute conversation afterward, basically to the audience, bragging about how well he pulled of said stunts. Instead of making a great action-comedy, these guys made an average one. So be it.

Franco’s performance is one-note. He gets some laughs, but compared to the laughs he got on Freaks and Geeks, nothing extraordinary. For Devin to say this performance merits an Oscar nom is a lot funnier than anything in this film.

Step Brothers = this is an argument over what’s funny, which never leads anywhere.

No, my earlier comment was not a threat so much as a hope that you will listen to reason from one of your fellow writers. My opinion as a commenter/fanboy might not hold as much weight as the opinion of a peer from the movie website community. I’m looking for Devin to respond and to prove you wrong using the old Nick Naylor “I proved you wrong, so I’m automatically right” method of argument (Because we are dealing with opinions here). Maybe then you’ll realize what a horrible mistake you’ve made in writing this negative review.

I mean, come on Hunter. You based your expectations of Pineapple Express on a fan-made trailer for an alternate cut of Superbad? And how can anyone have had any real expectations for Pineapple Express other than a hope that the amazing talent attached to it would produce a great flick? We’re talking about David Gordon Green directing a Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg script. You know, Undertow and George Washington David Gordon Green? In my head, at least, David Gordon’s style of directing/tone/choice of story + SR/EG script does not compute. Yet we still had a talented director paired with two talented screenwriters, so one could only pray that the end result would be great (which it was). In this day and age, name recognition plays a key factor in helping a moviegoer decide movies they’re excited to see (especially comedies). I mean, how many people are lining up mentally to go see Year One? Tropic Thunder? Zach and Miri Make a Porno? But I think you’re overselling the bias that may come with name recognition and the past successes of those names. Despite the names attached to Drillbit Taylor and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (Apatow, Hughes, Wilson, Rogen and Apatow, Smigel, Sandler respectively) we knew from the start that these two movies would end up sucking. They did.

To belittle Franco’s performance by labeling it as a caricature of Floyd is downright criminal. Are we to believe that Floyd is the pinnacle of fictional potheads in modern cinema? Maybe someone should have told Franco, “Don’t bother. That’s Pitt’s territory.” Saul was permastoned for sure, but he was still a functioning human being just looking for a friend in Dale. Floyd was BLAZED to the point where I wouldn’t even trust him with changing out a light bulb. One performance will cast aside the shadow of Harry Osborn, while the other’s just a nice small role turned cameo from a future superstar.

Step Brothers? Come on, man. It sounds like you gave the free pass to Will Ferrell, John C.. Reilly and Adam McKay. The wine mixer scene is only funny when you realize, “Wow. This movie is ending with Will Ferrell singing Por Ti Volare.” The opera music playing during the shots of Dale’s drums was a stroke of genius, albeit a small one. And that pretty much sums up the laughs of Step Brothers (Seth Rogen’s cameo counts as a 1/2 on account of the fart).

It seems like the whole review was a direct backlash of having this shoved down your throat as being the next stoner magnum opus. Judge it for what it is, not what you expected it to be. Your fantasy of what something will be is always better than what it actually is.

The problem is your review doesn’t seem fair. I mean you completely flamed PE like it was the sequel to Gigli or something. As a critic, your supposed to give us the good AND the bad so that we can determine is something we want to see. Your review makes it look terrible and if everyone trusted your review, no one would see it and I happen to know HUNDREDS of people that enjoyed this movie — like everyone who sat with me in the packed stadium theatre who couldn’t stop laughing long enough for me to catch the next joke (ohrite, they were prolly just stoners…).

The review wreaks of bias or an effort to make some point about something we are all not privy to. I mean PE is really not that bad! Franco’s performance wasn’t copycat — it was original, entertaining and frankly, I drew no similarities to Pitt’s TR performance. I think that is a cheap blow in the face of a noteworthy performance by Franco. See, we WANT him to do more work like this! The audience loves it! Obviously he doesn’t need an Oscar but maybe a lend him an approving review in hopes that we can stave off more Tristan & Isoldes.

Most of the audiences or at least most of the /film audience seemed to like it a lot so I really don’t know what audience your speaking for. If I wrote a negative review and my fanbase had an overwhelming negative reaction to my review, I would probably assume that I missed something. Like, maybe I didn’t quite get it or see who this type of behavior and humor is appreciated by. Most /film reviews I read are right on the money because we follow the same interests — we like the same shit. Your review was outside the paint — it seemed like a review from another website that I specifically avoid because they are unreliable. This is why I troll /film forums all day. Go figure… I can let the occasional review disagreement slide but Stepbrothers > PE? That should be retracted.

Lastly, “An argument against this review and in defense of the movie will be: ‘Well, it’s not supposed to be as funny as Superbad’….

Yes it was supposed to be as funny and I think it came pretty close. I mean, there’s something wrong with a person who loved Superbad but staunchly disagreed with this one. Afterall, when you look at the big picture, the movies are not that different as far as movie comparisons go or at least in terms of humor level and style.

…”and “it’s not supposed to be as action-y as Lethal Weapon.”

Duh.

“And therefore the movie is not supposed to be really funny or really thrilling, correct?”

Double duh.

“And the justification is, ‘it’s a stoner movie, OMG, it’s not supposed to be that good in general’? Okay.

No not okay. If each patron that sat in the packed stadium theatre that I saw it in was totally stoned, I would be really surprised. I sat between a fifty year old couple and a group of indian girls in their thirties and the entire theatre was roaring with laughter almost the whole way through the movie. That is what you call a positive review. I happened to have a decent high so it was that much better for me.

Nice conspiracy theory for a Thursday night. Truth be told, I wrote this review of Pineapple Express as a reaction to the Montauk Monster, not Devin’s review at CHUD, who, by the way, didn’t bash my TWBB review. He wrote a smart article after I inquired via Slashfilm why he had waited so long to review PTA’s masterpiece, a film that deserved more online support and endorsements than it had received at that point. And @Samantha, this review is not out of “spite.” Slashfilm and CHUD have a “feud” in Devin’s words, but we are both Aaron Burrs, so calm down.

@the_condor

“Let’s face it Hunter, this review deserves a response from Devin.” Is that a mini-threat? It’d be cool if Devin responded, what’s wrong with discourse over a stoner movie? Instead of barfing up the same “clever” plot synopsis you’ll see take up reviews in most magazines, by taking issue with certain specifics in other reviews it might add something new to the discussion.

I’m a fan of Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride and Judd Apatow, but if you read a lot of 9.0 and 10.0 reviews (not Devin’s though), you’ll get the impression that reviewers hesitate to say that a lot of the improv in this flick falls flat. There’s this media-crazed need to make Franco a star—part of the “New Kings of Funny” per GQ magazine—for a performance that is average—moreover, it’s a caricature of a stoner based on Brad Pitt’s stoner in True Romance—a four minute role extended for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We’re supposed to drink some watered down Koolaid based on good faith for Knocked Up, Freaks and Geeks, Superbad and the fact that “whoa, they’re smoking a lot of weed in this movie.” And because there’s ganja in the flick, you’re supposed to “go with the flow, monnn” and not point out that it’s a 6/10. It’s the summer, saying you were disappointed by Pineapple Express doesn’t make you a killjoy, it just means you’re being honest.

Those are all smart funny and SUBVERSIVE stoners. Lebowski was even one of the Seattle Seven for chrissake!

My point is stoners are not stupid. Stoners have always been self aware, and their movies have played to that. Cheech and Chong wanted to bring down “the man”. a noble goal.

Lebowski was a F*ing genius really. Talk about a stoner action movie. That one’s it. The only action a stoner needs is dropping his J in his lap while he’s driving and hitting a dumpster. Pineapple Express should have stayed in that realm, not the”Thug Life” realm. I don’t know any “Stoners” that listen to Hip Hop. Besides, do Franco or Rogen look like Hip Hop fans in this movie?

And Harold and Kumar just wanted some munchies, man.

Those are stoner comedies. Those are premises that stoners can wrap their head around. When I’m stoned (not that I’m ever stoned) I don’t like to see bullets shooting off peoples body parts. Maybe when I’m tweaked out of my skull, but not when I’m stoned.

Besides, I didn’t laugh once in the last third of this flick.

@Blueberry

1. You said “frackin”. Wow…

2. “Let me know what insane form of hallucinogen you took that made this piece of crap of a movie hilarious” ……. god so laaaame in so many ways. You obviously don’t smoke so Im trying to figure out why a person who either doesnt smoke or smokes very little would go see this movie, hate it, and then jump on the blogs and flame the movie when he isn’t even the target audience for it. Such a fracking noob..

Dude, smoke a dubie and chill.

Pineapple Express was no Superbad and I’m actually surprised that I enjoyed Step Brothers more.

Next time, review the movie when you watch it sober. If some drug made PE funny to you, then let me know what insane form of hallucinogen you took that made this piece of crap of a movie hilarious. I tried to like it. I TRIED. Enough said.

This movie really wasn’t that great.