Posts Tagged ‘Pineapple Express’

Best surprise: With song/dance man Hugh Jackman as host, surprise presenters, and funny gag bits, the Oscar’s was one of the most entertaining it’s been in a long time. (Ratings were even up 6 percent from last year’s telecast.)

Worst surprise: Chances are you won your office pool because just about no surprise winners threw off our ballots. “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned up winning 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay as predicted, and Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Penélope Cruz won as expected. The biggest upset was Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke, but really we all knew it was between the two anyway.

Worst use of presenting the Best Pictures:  Up until the last ten minutes of the show, you wouldn’t even know which films were nominated for Best Picture, and isn’t this what the night was really all about? Instead of showcasing clips throughout the night like usual, the clips were only shown right before the award was handed out. Even worse, they were intermingled with previous films that have similar themes making the clips confusing and taking attention away from the nominees.

Best presentation of movies: The montages of film genres recapping the best of 2008 were done so in great pop culture fashion. Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” played to the great romance flicks, Wall-E the adorable robot found a tape of the best animation movies, and the hilarious James Franco and Seth Rogen reprised their “Pineapple Express” roles as they watched DVDs of the funniest comedies.

Worst use of presenting the Best Songs: The song nominees, which are usually played in their entirety throughout the night, also weren’t given their full due. The two “Slumdog Millionaire” songs and “Wall-E” song were shortened and played one after the other. We all knew “Jai Ho” was going to win, but “Wall-E” should have been given it’s own set piece rather than making John Legend sing with “Slumdog’s” Indian back-up dancers and drummers.

Best use of presenting awards: Rather than randomly presenting awards, the telecast walked the audience through the making of a movie starting with the screenwriting process to art direction to editing. Stars associated with the category was also a nice touch like action hero Will Smith presenting Best Visual Effects and Sound Mixing and “Religious” filmmaker Bill Maher presenting Best Documentary.

Best presenters: Steve Martin and Tina Fey presented the screenplay awards humorously (“Don’t fall in love with me” Martin stoically told a googly eyed Fey) and controversially (poking fun at Hollywood-favorite Scientology). And don’t forget about Ben Stiller who delivered a dead-on impression of Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” while presenting with Natalie Portman. It would have been even funnier though if it wasn’t just parodied at the previous night’s Independent Spirit Awards.

Best use of presenters: Keeping most of the identities of the presenters top-secret beforehand made for a more exciting show because you never knew who was going to come out next. Hello Will Smith, hello Reese Witherspoon!

Worst use of presenters: While it was fun seeing past winners like Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken, presenting the nominees, it came off too self-congratulatory. Instead of comments like “You really nailed it” and Marion Cotillard clasping her hands together cooing “Thank you” to Winslet, let’s see some clips instead. Most viewers at home haven’t seen all the movies, so it’d be more interesting to see the performances for which they’re nominated. 

Best acceptance speech: Instead of the director or co-stars accepting on his behalf, the acceptance of Heath Ledger’s Oscar by his family was much more touching. “Tonight we are choosing to be happy and celebrate what he has achieved,” his mother, Sally Bell, said.

Funniest acceptance speeches: Where to begin? First there’s Phillipe Petit, the subject of the documentary, “Man on Wire,” who not only balanced the Oscar on his chin, he also made a coin disappear.  Then the Japanese director of the Best Animated Short, “Kunio Kato thanked Mr. Roboto.” Finally, Best Director, Danny Boyle, bounced up and down in homage of Tigger for his children.  

Worst camera shots: Awkward alert… Not only did Jennifer Aniston have to present an award mere feet away from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the camera cut away to Brangelina twice! At least Jolie and Pitt made nice and weren’t giving dirty looks.

Best use of teeny boppers: While baby faced stars like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Robert Pattinson, and Amanda Seyfried presented and performed on stage to most likely draw in the younger audience, their presence was downplayed and didn’t make the Oscars feel like the Teen Choice Awards.

Best secret talent: Anne Hathaway showed off her really good voice in her pretend-impromptu song and dance number with Jackman. Look out Beyoncé. Maybe you won’t be needed next year.

Here are the winners of the major categories:

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Got “Milk”? You better because it’s up for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards later this month. I only wish we learned more about Harvey Milk the person and not just Harvey Milk the politician.

In this fact-based account, director Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting”) tells the story of Milk (Sean Penn) who went from a 40-year-old San Francisco hippie to become the first openly gay man elected to city office. We watch as Harvey builds an alliance of enthusiastic supporters, goes through relationships, and cuts off his long ponytail to put together a clean-cut façade to become a politician.

But what’s great about him is that even though he swapped flared jeans for a business-like three-piece suit, Harvey didn’t lose his inner spirit and initiatives. Never one to give in to the status quo, he’d personally run around and pick up dog poop to score votes from the people and challenge his opponents to debates. When one opponent asserts that gay teachers will in turn produce gay students, Harvey quips that if that were true there’d be a lot more nuns running around.

That kind of attitude makes Harvey endearing and inspirational along with one poignant scene where he pins a death threat on his refrigerator telling boyfriend Scottie (James Franco) that the threat is only as scary as they allow it to be.

The problem is that most of the other characters are not all that endearing. While Franco’s performance is good and is virtually in disguisable from his “Pineapple Express” stoner role, his character isn’t there when Harvey needs him the most and tells Harvey’s business acquaintance “Sorry I pissed in your pool.” He really did.

Diego Luna, as another of Harvey’s love interests, is stuck to a pouty, one-dimensional role, and Emile Hirsch and Alison Pill as Harvey’s campaign workers have some of the better performances. Unfortunately, Penn wasn’t as outstanding as I was anticipating. In fact, he’d often lapse too far into his “I am Sam” character. 

The story itself was also not quite as outstanding as expected with a slow storyline. The film mostly consisted of a never-ending stretch of loss after loss during Harvey’s campaign until he finally at last won. We also know that ultimately Dan White (Josh Brolin), Harvey’s colleague, ultimately assassinates him and due to the framing device of Harvey recording his story for it to be told in the event of his assassination heightening the tension throughout the film, the actual assassination scene is very anticlimactic.

We’re also left wanting more in terms of the emotions and motives of the characters. For example, why exactly did White kill Harvey? He always seemed off-kilter, so what was he going through to make him the way he was? What did Harvey did his whole life before he got involved in politics? Why was Harvey involved in the shallow, one-dimensional relationship with Luna’s character and wasn’t he affected by what eventually happened between them? Van Sant recently told Entertainment Weekly, Harvey’s life was quite romantic but it really didn’t seem that way in the movie.

So get “Milk” but know that it’s kind of like milk. Just as you should drink it but it’s not as good as soda, you should see “Milk” but it’s not as good as the other four Best Picture nominees.

“Dream big,” Ellen Page’s “Juno” character tells her step mom. Indeed, the film’s director and stars did.

Not only was “Juno” nominated for four Oscar nominations, its stars and director won awards, or as they are called “Beavers” at their native Canada’s ninth annual Canadian Comedy Awards Friday night in Saskatchewan.

Montreal-born Jason Reitman won Pretty Funny Film Directing, Halifax-born Ellen Page won Pretty Funny Female Actress of the Year, and Ontario-born Michael Cera won Pretty Funny Male Actor of the Year for “Superbad” (even though he also was in “Juno”).

Cera’s “Superbad” costar, Vancouver-born Seth Rogen, won a Beaver for writing the raunchy but funny teen comedy. He also won Pretty Funny Comic Person of the Year for his recent performances in “Knocked Up” and “Pineapple Express.”

You can see the show and the rest of the winners when it airs next March on Canada’s The Comedy Network.

In the meantime, read on to see what other celebrities hail from the land up north.

Eric McCormack – Toronto, Ontario

Jim Carrey – Newmarket, Ontario

John Candy – Toronto, Ontario

Lorne Michaels – Toronto, Ontario

Avril Lavigne – Belleville, Ontario

Shania Twain – Windsor, Ontario

Mike Myers – Scarborough, Ontario

Pamela Anderson – Ladysmith, British Columbia

William Shatner – Montreal, Quebec

Paul Shaffer – Thunder Bay, Ontario

Yet another up-and-coming, beloved actor was busted for drugs over the summer. Craig Robinson, who plays too-cool Darryl Philbin on NBCs The Office and stars in the recently-released Pineapple Express, was arrested on June 29 for suspicion of possession of ecstasy and mathamphetamines.

According to sources, Robinson was also charged with being under the influence of cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines when he was picked up. (Are you kidding me???) Robinson is scheduled for court on August 21. Maybe he’ll go the positive route: be accountable, agree to treatment and move on to lead a drug-free life. Hey, worked for Robert Downey, Jr.

As I already have a Netflix membership that is seriously underused, I have a hard time justifying the cost of going to see movies when they’re new to theaters.  That said, there are some movies that are must-sees, and “Pineapple Express,” the latest from the Judd Apatow family of frat-pack, gross-out films, is one of them.

Let’s start with the actors–stars James Franco and Seth Rogen first crassed up the screen together in Apatow’s cult TV series “Freaks and Geeks,” and Rogen has been a prominent player in Apatow’s rotating company of stoner oafs from the get-go (think “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up”). 

Rogen also doubles as one of the movie’s screenwriters; here, as in “Superbad,” Rogen’s touch is unmistakable–a healthy mix of stoner humor, the outrageous, and heart.

While Rogen’s capable turn as out-of-it underdog Dale doesn’t disappoint, it’s Franco’s turn as Dale’s drug dealer, Saul, that’s the real gem.  If you’ve only seen Franco in the “Spiderman” films, you are in for a treat–this is a character we haven’t seen Franco do before, and he goes for it with gusto.  After years of playing brooders and antiheroes, Franco seems to revel in the sheer fun of the film’s absurdity and disappears into the role.

It’s that complete dedication to the ridiculous nature of the movie that really makes this movie a must-see.  The plot leaves something to be desired in terms of plausibility, but dedication Rogen, Franco, Rosie Perez, Gary Cole and the rest of the cast to the absurd world of the movie elevate it to pure enjoyment and let you suspend your disbelief.

And yes, it’s funny, too.

In short: any faults the movie may have are made up for by the quality of the jokes.  “Pineapple Express” is well worth seeing now, and again later, via Netflix.

OK, so maybe they are not as easy on the eyes as Brad Pitt, but Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and the like have introduced a new class of men to Hollywood, affectionately dubbed as the “Comedy Mafia”.

Flashback to high school and these self described “nice Jewish boys” would surely have generated a few laughs but would probably not have been a girl’s first choice for a prom date. Well, talk about Revenge of the Nerds (or comedians, in their case).

This month, Rogen graces the cover of GQ, a spot typically reserved for Hollywood’s quintessentially beautiful men. Although Rogen fondly cites Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler as inspirations, neither Ferrell, who Rogen calls “the funniest guy ever” nor Sandler can tout a GQ cover as one of their many accolades.

Proving he’s more than just a pretty face, Rogen not only acts in his movies, which have grossed over 400 million, but also has contributed to the writing and production of many, along with childhood friend Evan Goldberg.

Although Rogen and company’s films may appear entrenched with pot smoking and bodily fluids, the films have been surprisingly well received by critics.

Rogen and Hill’s mark on the Hollywood scene was even conceded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, notorious for shunning raunchy comedy, when the two nascent comedy kings were chosen to present at the 2008 Academy Awards.

With Rogen’s charm and growing fame, he was able to secure ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis to record the title song for his new, highly anticipated movie, Pineapple Express.

It appears that wit, a good sense of humor, and not taking yourself seriously will make you the boss of the mafia in Hollywood.

Here’s five things you probably don’t know but should:

1. “I’m not gonna write you a love song caused you asked me to.” – But she did. The context of the hit single, “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles was that her label (Epic) actually asked her to write a “marketable love song” for her album.

2. Congratulations, it’s twins! – Actors James Franco (Pineapple Express) and Hayden Christensen (Jumper) share the same birthday, that of April 19th. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ve noticed that they also share the same nose, mouth, and eyes…(whoa, that’s a lot of gorgeous).

3. All in the Family – Actor Nicholas Cage is the nephew of great Hollywood Producer Francis Ford Coppola (Lost in Translation), and he is also cousins with “Office” actor Jason Schwartzman.

4. More Birthday Madness – Get ready for this – Will Smith, Heather Locklear, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Michael Douglas were all born on September 25.

5. “Gossip Girl” co-stars Blake Lively and Penn Badgley have known each other since they were ages 11 and 12.