What do you do when you make a couple stoner comedies and you’re suddenly hailed as the second coming? That’s the favorable dilemma Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan now face after the mega-smashes of 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad. So…how do you follow?
Make the biggest guns-n-explosions, Cheech ‘n’ Chong-style stoner adventure ever put to film, that’s how. Oh, and hire an acclaimed and respected director to helm it.
Watch the mind-blowing trailer for Pineapple Express after the hop:
<@jump>
When David Gordon Green wrote and directed George Washington (available on Criterion DVD), at the age of 25, he was hailed as a visionary in the mold of Terrence Malick. When he followed up with 2003’s All the Real Girls (one of this writer’s all-time favorite films), Salon said, “Green (who also wrote the movie’s script) nurtures the couple’s affections as if they were a tender sapling under threat of being bruised and buffeted by the real world.”
And…now he’s done this. Don’t get me wrong, it looks amazing. But still. Wha?!?
FYI: the music in the trailer is by M.I.A. and Diplo, borrowing a lick from the Clash’s “Straight to Hell.” The song’s called “Paper Planes” and generated some controversy when MTV re-edited the video and changed up the song to exclude gun shot sounds and the word “weed.” Check the unedited vid below
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.