Pineapple Express Clip Starring Seth Rogen and James Franco
Given the choice between watching a trailer for an upcoming movie or a short clip from it, I’m hard-pressed to decide which is the better indicator of quality. Trailers are created specifically for the purposes of marketing, and feature some of the best moments of a movie (or so you would assume) edited together in a nice little package that summarizes what the story is about. It’s pretty easy to mislead and manipulate people with a trailer, but you do usually get a sense of the big picture. On the other hand, watching an actual clip may sound like the more pure and objective sample of what to expect from a film, but sometimes seeing a scene out of context from everything else gives you the wrong impression.
This is the dilemma I find myself in, having just watched a clip from the upcoming movie Pineapple Express without having seen a trailer as of yet. I’ve been pretty excited about this movie, not only because it features the re-teaming of Freaks & Geeks buddies Seth Rogen and James Franco, but also because it’s being directed by someone you wouldn’t really expect in David Gordon Green (George Washington, All The Real Girls). The clip, which features Rogen and Franco as two stoners fawning over a bag of weed, kind of fell flat for me. Maybe I’ve just seen Rogen doing this kind of routine a few too many times lately, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions since it’s just one scene (granted, a four minute one at that). Check out the clip below and see what you get out of it. Comedy gold? Pineapple Express hits theatres on August 8th, 2008.
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Comments (4)
Seth Rogen is completely overrated anyway. He is generally unfunny, not a good writer and certainly not a good actor (I guess using Actor beside his name is an insult to actors, so I will have to take that back).
“Knocked Up” was one of the biggest yawners I have the displeasure of seeing this year. Rogen did a little to redeem himself in “SuperBad”, but then again, using shocking teenage sexual language is boring and tired and will always be.
The formula only worked in “The 40 Year Old Virgin” because Steve Carrel helped write it and thus added some warmth – Rogen did nothing to help that movie and in fact could have been left out without missing a beat
This new clip smacks of the same old trodden ground. Tired, lame and an out-loud groan. Rogen, get out of pictures and go back to being a grocery bagger in Vancouver.
Posted by David on December 3rd, 2007Gotta disagree with you about Knocked Up… I loved it in the theatre and have since watched it on DVD and found it just as enjoyable. It proved to me that Rogen could actually carry a film, which I was a little unsure about.
However, I do have a sneaking suspicion that overexposure could be a big problem for him. His upcoming movies over the next year or two may reveal a lot of his limitations, as he steps outside of the environments where he can improvise jokes with Judd Apatow and his buddies. Green Hornet and the Kevin Smith movie are going to put his talent to the test. We’ll see what happens.
Posted by Sean on December 3rd, 2007I know a lot of people disagree with me about “Knocked Up”, and I am not sure why – I can’t think of any redeeming characters or features of the movie. If I can’t relate to a character or don’t care for them, I find it very difficult to like the film.
All of the characters were completely unlikeable and thus rang false for me. Rogen would have never got that girl – he wasn’t witty or even particularly alpha, so it showed up as a red flag on the hard-to-believe register. In the 80’s, the teen movies surrounding “nerds getting the girl”, at least a viewer felt there was a “sweet or gentle side” to the characters that would convince you to suspend your disbelief. Not with “Knocked Up”. Never.
The four friends were so played. They tried to emulate the lame 4 immature college buddies routine and it didn’t work. Even the running joke about the beard was too much to bear and made little sense except to find something to pad the screenplay with.
One of my biggest peeves was the scene with the Judd’s wife mixing it up with the bouncer over age discrimination. Egad, it was one of the most embarrassing scenes I have ever been privy to. Kill me now. That scene shouldn’t have never made it past the script stage or the cutting room floor. It sounded forced, contrived and just plain laborious.
I have always hoped people were becoming more discerning in their movie taste; not less. If this is what passes for comedy, let’s have a “White Chicks” Part 2, 3 and 4 while we are at it.
I am finding the same trend with other “Judd CRAPatow” movies (yeah, that is an original name-call there, feel free to quote me). In Superbad, the fat kid was one of the worst examples of human kind on the planet – rude, uncaring, selfish and uncaring (yeah, I said uncaring twice). Luckily, there was McLovin which was the best part of the film. He was normal guy, trying his best and somehow got lucky in the process. The fat kid was self-centered and despicable and by no means would have achieved the success he had at the end of the picture by getting the girl.
Raving? Yeah, I guess I am. After seeing great movies like “Primer” and “Brick” and not seeing box office acclaim that they should have received bothers me as a movie-goer and a film-maker. Don’t get me wrong, I like a movie for entertainment sake – “Transformers”, “Across the Universe” and even “Resident Evil Extinction” held their own as far as entertainment value. I didn’t expect much from them, but was entertained to the point that I felt my time and money was worth it. With CRAPatow’s latest, a time-machine is necessary for me to take back the precious hours I lost. Hey Cheel, did they ever get the time-machine working from your documentary? I might need it.
Back to your other point: I am not sure about overexposure as the root of the problem. Hollywood has a tendency to use and abuse (think Ben Affleck) their talent while the getting is good. This wouldn’t affect my enjoyment of a movie (hell, I love Daredevil). But for me, watching Rogen and CRAPatow using tired methods and shocking language is the same as multiplying by zero, you can’t get nothing from nothing.
Posted by David on December 3rd, 2007Leave a Reply