Double Review: Seth Rogen smoking weed and making a porno

Most people remember first seeing Seth Rogen in Steve Carell starrer '40 year old virgin'. After the success of Knocked up and Superbad, he is in huge demand thesedays and has just finished an epic year being credited in 6 movies including Horton hears a who, Kung Fu Panda and Step Brothers. However the biggest movies were the ones he starred in namely Pineapple Express and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This post shall chiefly deal with these two movies.

Pineapple Express:


Basically what this movie is a Judd Apatow movie. This man who has directed movies like Knocked Up and 40 year old Virgin has now carved a genre for himself much like Kevin Smith (of who we shall be talking more about later). All his movies deal with a loser protagonist who has a lousy job,loves weed and no real girlfriend and nothing really going for him at the start of the movie. Through a delightful concoction of co-incidences and mishaps he end up in a difficult situation and keeps getting thwacked but somehow ends up at the top by the time credits roll. We saw it in Superbad, Knocked Up and kinda in 40 year old Virgin too.


Pineapple Express is no different. Dale Denton(Seth Rogen) is the weed loving, sub poena serving, clueless in life hero our tale who has just seen a murder happen. He understands that he can be easily tracked down because the murderer is the sole supplier of the weed called Pineapple Express which his drug dealer(Saul Silver) has sold only to him. Now Dale and Saul are on the run and the comedy of errors ensuing is the rest of the story. The drug dealer's role is played by James Franco (famous for his green goblin jnr role in spiderman) and is definitely the best aspect of the movie. Franco's portrayal of innocent yet brave, grandma loving, good natured hippie drug dealer was brilliant. His body language and diction were so cute and hilarious. I am looking forward to see him performance in the oscar nominated 'Milk'. Seth Rogen is just wearing his second skin and these crazy antics arent anything new for him. I dont know about others but right now I am tired of the typical Seth Rogen roles. Its about time he takes up different roles. I dont think I will be able to stand another such performance as a gullible weed loving loser by Seth Rogen. The movie has its plot turns and twists, all of them very whimsical but only some funny. It ends up being a tollywood movie for its 'bring it on' climax and bullet wound victims who survive for hours and go home happily. The bromance is one of the key plot aspects as in any other Apatow movie(remember Superbad?)and if you like that you wont be let down here either. However the movie aint so great and can be watched if you want a few laughs.

Rating: 6/10


Zack and Miri Make a Porno


Zaack and Miri is no different for Seth Rogen in terms of the character he plays. However he takes away the Apatow make up and wears Kevin Smith make up. Kevin Smith has made another trademark film of his filled with loser characters who can never get enough of the f word, barely making a living and having brilliant ideas from time to time and making it big at the end. Zack and Miri (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) are two high school best friends who live together as they dont have any close relatives. They are broke and dont have enough cash to pay utility bills. To get past their cashstrappedness they decide to make a porn film with the help of a friend. They arent lovers or have ever dated each other and very predictably that is going to change by the end of the movie. Everything you can expect from movie in which boy and girl are best friends, people who are broke and starting out a business venture happen and there is hardly any innovation in the plot. Kevin Smith who has given us wonderful movies like Clerks and its sequel, Chasing Amy and Dogma has made this movie with his eyes closed. I was disappointed with the lack of depth and the Kevin Smith brand of humour in this movie. Though the expletives remained comedy was missing. I am not going to talk about Seth Rogen's lacklustre performance. The supporting cast was decent. Elizabeth Banks did a decent job as Miriam Linky, aka stinky linky who is desperate in getting laid. oh wait I dont know what she does in the movie except hang out at the coffee shop. Kevin Smith has never been so careless in the plot aspects and writing of the film. I hope Smith does better the next time.

Rating: 5/10