Pineapple Express and the New King of Comedy
8/11/2008
He might be the most powerful man in Hollywood that nobody knows. He doesn’t get stopped for autographs on the street. His picture isn’t on the front page of People magazine. For that matter, you may not even recognize Judd Apatow’s name …
But he’s someone every youth pastor should know, as Judd Apatow has put his creative stamp on nearly every comedy made over the past three years.
I’m not exaggerating. A quick search on imdb.com shows that Apatow has served as the writer, director, or producer for 13 films released since 2005. During this span Team Apatow (a group of writers, actors and directors that partner with Apatow regularly) has released a stream of movies that are rude, crude, widely successful – and perhaps most surprising – critically celebrated. For instance, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have all scored at least an 85% “fresh” ranking at rottentomatoes.com (most movies are lucky to break 60%), leading many to crown Apatow and his crew the new kings of comedy.
And while it’s easy for Christians to dismiss Apatow as a peddler of trash, it’s not completely accurate (mostly accurate maybe, but not completely). Lurking behind all four movies listed above is a strange, if somewhat contradictory, undercurrent of morality. In Virgin the main character ultimately ignores his friends’ misguided sex advice and waits till marriage. The main character in Knocked Up abandons weed and porn to become a good father. In Superbad Michael Cera’s character passes on taking advantage of a very willing, if very drunk, girl he likes in favor of a meaningful relationship. Now does all this excuse the trash that precedes it? Probably not. But one could argue that some (though not all) of Apatow’s films ultimately point to a place beyond it.
Unfortunately Pineapple Express is not one of those movies. Whereas Knocked Up and Virgin dealt with real people who have real character arcs, Pineapple Express ultimately is more interested in parody. What’s initially a story about two stoner friends stumbling through life becomes a tongue-in-cheek send-up of ridiculous action movies clichés. Thus, at the end of Pineapple Express, there are no lessons learned and no deeper ideals strived for. Any messages about loyalty to friends or the consequences of smoking pot (which are both, sort of, presented) are swallowed up by the campiness and sarcasm that consume the final 30 minutes of the movie.
I say this because the typical teenager will probably respond to this movie the way the guy sitting in front of me did when he exclaimed “now THAT was a great stoner movie.”
Unfortunately, that’s as far as the movie’s message goes. While Pineapple Express is well made and fairly funny, it’s lacking that human element that gave Apatow’s previous efforts a sheen of redemption. And that’s too bad, because the night I saw this movie two-thirds of the audience couldn’t have been older than 18.
(for more information on Pineapple Express’s plot and content, check out www.pluggedinonline.org.)
Josh Pease is on the HSM team at Saddleback, and a self-admitted movie snob/over-analyzer of film. Feel free to email him with comments/suggestions for this column at joshp@saddleback.net.
But he’s someone every youth pastor should know, as Judd Apatow has put his creative stamp on nearly every comedy made over the past three years.
I’m not exaggerating. A quick search on imdb.com shows that Apatow has served as the writer, director, or producer for 13 films released since 2005. During this span Team Apatow (a group of writers, actors and directors that partner with Apatow regularly) has released a stream of movies that are rude, crude, widely successful – and perhaps most surprising – critically celebrated. For instance, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have all scored at least an 85% “fresh” ranking at rottentomatoes.com (most movies are lucky to break 60%), leading many to crown Apatow and his crew the new kings of comedy.
And while it’s easy for Christians to dismiss Apatow as a peddler of trash, it’s not completely accurate (mostly accurate maybe, but not completely). Lurking behind all four movies listed above is a strange, if somewhat contradictory, undercurrent of morality. In Virgin the main character ultimately ignores his friends’ misguided sex advice and waits till marriage. The main character in Knocked Up abandons weed and porn to become a good father. In Superbad Michael Cera’s character passes on taking advantage of a very willing, if very drunk, girl he likes in favor of a meaningful relationship. Now does all this excuse the trash that precedes it? Probably not. But one could argue that some (though not all) of Apatow’s films ultimately point to a place beyond it.
Unfortunately Pineapple Express is not one of those movies. Whereas Knocked Up and Virgin dealt with real people who have real character arcs, Pineapple Express ultimately is more interested in parody. What’s initially a story about two stoner friends stumbling through life becomes a tongue-in-cheek send-up of ridiculous action movies clichés. Thus, at the end of Pineapple Express, there are no lessons learned and no deeper ideals strived for. Any messages about loyalty to friends or the consequences of smoking pot (which are both, sort of, presented) are swallowed up by the campiness and sarcasm that consume the final 30 minutes of the movie.
I say this because the typical teenager will probably respond to this movie the way the guy sitting in front of me did when he exclaimed “now THAT was a great stoner movie.”
Unfortunately, that’s as far as the movie’s message goes. While Pineapple Express is well made and fairly funny, it’s lacking that human element that gave Apatow’s previous efforts a sheen of redemption. And that’s too bad, because the night I saw this movie two-thirds of the audience couldn’t have been older than 18.
(for more information on Pineapple Express’s plot and content, check out www.pluggedinonline.org.)
Josh Pease is on the HSM team at Saddleback, and a self-admitted movie snob/over-analyzer of film. Feel free to email him with comments/suggestions for this column at joshp@saddleback.net.
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