Pineapple Express - Blu-ray review

Full Review

From the creators of 40 Year old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, Pineapple Express is a pot-fuelled adventure created by Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow. But can the film emulate the success of the previous smash hits? We get viewing, without the ‘erb we hasten to add, to find out.

The story is a simple one - well at first anyway. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a court process clerk and stoner. In serving a writ against a drug lord, he witnesses a murder and is forced on the run with his hapless drug dealer Saul Silver (James Franco). The rest of the movie is a drug filled on-the-run rush to get away from two Pulp Fiction style hit men, the drug lord himself and a bent cop in on the deal. Where does Pineapple Express come into all this? It's the uber weed that connects all the characters together of course.

Like the previous movies from Rogen, the action travels along at a reasonable pace as it slowly builds to a climatic, if not somewhat ridiculous, ending. The laughs keep coming, but so do the drug references leaving those who don’t partake slightly in the dark.

That said the script is still witty in a Kevin Smith kind of way. It doesn't have the same soliloquies at Smith's Clerks or Dogma for example, but does offer plenty for those looking for a buddy movie with a bit more off beat quirkiness to it, with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments.

Where this Blu-ray edition strikes gold however is the plethora of extras to be found. You'll find three versions of the film in the box - the original theatrical version, an extended version of the film and a bonus digital version so you can have a copy for your MP3 player or computer.

Elsewhere you get an audio commentary with most of the key players including Rogen, and a couple of featurettes that are the usual dishwater you'll find on ITV at around 1 in the morning.

Luckily for any fan wanting to delve deeper there is plenty more. Deleted scenes, alternate scenes, gag reel footage, raw footage, rehearsal footage, injury footage where we find out Rogen fractured his finger and hurt his knee, comic-com complete with gushing fanboys, reading footage as the cast prepared to shoot the movie, and even Ride the Express, a BD Live game to confuse you.

Verdict

While Pineapple Express sees an amazing performance from Franco, Seth Rogen seems on auto-pilot. Other pseudo famous names chip in - Gary Cole (you’ll know who we mean when you see a picture of him - IMDb lists him as having done lots of TV including Desperate Housewives ) and Rosie Perez (the annoying women from that Nicolas Cage movie where he plays a cop who wins the lottery) but the focus is on Rogen and Franco.

That said, for fans of the previous Apatow involved films such as Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up they will love it.

A seven pushed up to eight for the cornucopia of features.

Rating: 18
Staring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny R. McBride
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Extras: Theatrical version, extended version, bonus digital copy, Ride the Express - BD Live Game, Commentary with Filmmakers and Cast, Deleted Scenes, Extended scenes, The Making of Pineapple Express, The Action of Pineapple Express, Gag Reel, Raw Footage, Rehearsal Footage, Injuy Footage, Comic-Con presentation, and reading script footage.

This Blu-ray was kindly loaned to us by Play.com, the UK’s favourite online entertainment retailer.

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