Pineapple ExpressMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 64 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    You'll go limp from laughing. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The laughs -- mostly crude, profane and drug-addled -- are almost non-stop. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    It's a quality movie even if the material is unworthy of the treatment. As a result, yes, it's a druggie comedy that made me laugh. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    The movie is jampacked with jokes, sight gags and set pieces guaranteed to appeal to the audience's sense of the preposterous. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    It ends up subverting its own subversion, arriving at a place that can only be called conventional. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    It's a funny, mostly harmless and entertaining film with a bad case of dry mouth. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    It's with that action aspect that Pineapple Express differs from Apatow's previous production output, and though, the words "taut" and "pulse-pounding" would never apply, the giddily over-the-top fight sequences, choreographed by veteran stunt coordinator Gary Hymes, handily compensate for the lag time. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Jan Stuart

    In the role of dramaturge, Rogen and his co-scripter Goldberg lack Apatow's discipline and deft hand for peripheral characters; the writing in Pineapple Express gets lazy whenever it strays too far from its central axis of players. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    It's an unshowy, generous performance [by Franco] and it greatly humanizes a movie that, as it shifts genre gears and cranks up the noise, becomes disappointingly sober and self-serious. Read full review

  • 60
    Variety | Justin Chang

    This rambunctious paean to pot retains the trademark Apatow sweetness even as it careens from messy vulgarisms to even messier violence. Read full review

View more reviews for Pineapple Express on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Violent stoner comedy is funny, but NOT for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that, from the opening scene, this "hard R" comedy -- which teens will want to see thanks to the presence of Knocked Up star Seth Rogen -- is suffused in a heavy cloud of marijuana smoke. One of the lead characters is a pot dealer, and the other smokes it habitually; pot is also sold to schoolchildren. There's also lots more violence than in most comedies from producer Judd Apatow, as well as constant strong language (including "f--k," and "s--t"). All of that said, one character does come to regret and reject his pot use, and dope-dealing higher-ups are portrayed as brutal, vicious criminals and murderers.
  • Families can talk about the real-life consequences of drug use. Do you think this movie sincerely depicts the negative consequences of marijuana use, or does it glamorize it and make it seem acceptable, even cool? What message does that send to teens who see the movie? Families can also talk about how this movie is similar to and different from others in the "Judd Apatow school" of humor. Why do you think his style of comedy is so popular?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Characters are consumed by drugs and drug culture. Corrupt police officers figure into the story. An Asian gang is portrayed in a simplistic light, with clichéd "Asian" music played when they're on screen.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Extensive, extreme, and near-constant violence, including beatings, shootings, stabbings, fistfights, and explosions. Characters are shot at close range on-screen, hit with coffee pots, crushed by cars, struck by cars, caught in explosions, tortured, and beaten. A character is shot in the ear, with extensive shots of the wound; a criminal's foot is vaporized by a shotgun blast. Several sequences portray heavy armaments and handguns as cool and nifty, with hyper-cut montages showing characters selecting, loading, and posing with weapons.
  • sex false3 Sex: A 26-year-old character has an 18-year-old girlfriend who's still in high school; kissing; lots of discussion of sex in frank, coarse terms.
  • language false5 Language: Extensive, constant, and inventive, including "f--k," "s--t," "ass," "balls," "c--k," dick," "p---y," "vagina," "boobies," "a--hole," "c--ksucker," "pee," "prick," "motherf---er," "titties," "turd," "snatch," "butthole," "handjob," "bitch," "dips--t," and "boner."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Some brands mentioned and shown on screen, including Old Milwaukee, Newcastle Brown Ale, Fruit Roll-Ups, and British Knights sneakers. Some TV shows and films re mentioned, including 227 and Krull.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Constant on screen use and discussion of marijuana. Joints, bongs, and pipes are employed. Saul is a drug dealer, albeit one with scruples; when a customer asks him if he has any Percocet for sale, he rebuffs the customer and derides him. To raise getaway funds, the lead characters sell marijuana to schoolchildren after letting them sample it. Characters smoke marijuana and then drive, as well as smoke marijuana while driving. Characters drink wine and beer. A lead character does suggest that, in life-threatening circumstances, it might not be the best idea to be perpetually stoned.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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