The TV Addict 

HEROES

Saul (James Franco) and Dale (Seth Rogen), PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
It’s always fun and/or thrilling to see regular dudes thrown into the deep end of a live or death situation in a wrong man type of scenario. It was a particular pleasure to watch Saul and Dale – as unassuming as anyone can probably get – constantly scramble to find themselves out of their situation. It was distinctly relatable while still being utterly absurd and hilarious.

Tony Star/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), IRON MAN
Tony Stark is classic hero in the sense that he starts off as anything but, discovers his conscience, and then decides to do the right thing. It’s a solid, well established heroic trajectory, yet what made Stark somewhat refreshing is that in his transformation he is never saccharine. Afterwards he still maintains that devilish rogue charm and cocky swagger that made him such a fun and appealing character. He’s a hero, but never a square. That’s exactly how Stark would have it.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
See? I do have positive things to say about THE X-FILES movie. Aside from Anderson being more gorgeous now than she was on the show (okay, that has nothing to with her character being a hero), Scully was the highlight of the film for me. She was sensitive and engaging, and her noble (and heroic) struggle – medical, emotional, moral – to try and help a terminally ill child almost made the film worth the price of admission. Almost.

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I am generally apprehensive of stoner comedies. It’s not for any political or judgmental reasons, so much as it seems often like an excuse for lazy, unstructured comedy, and well, I guess it just isn’t my thing in the same way I like peanut butter, but not peanuts because the texture of them give me the willies. That’s why I wasn’t really looking forward to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.

Thankfully my hesitance was entirely unmerited, something I probably should have anticipated given everyone involved in this film. The joy of the film is watching it subversively mix together all sorts of genre to create a bizarre but effective hybrid of stoner flicks, buddy-cop action movies, gangster and caper sagas and Hitchcock like “wrong man” adventures. It mashes them up together with a manic and irreverent spirit, speed, and energy, which by all accounts shouldn’t work.

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I’ve come a bit late to this party, but below are three episodes of the absolutely hilarious instructional video series “Acting with James Franco” from Funny or Die. Where else can you find such James Franco choice nuggets of wisdom like “Actors sniff jackets,” or “Anything can happen in green screen. Dinosaurs. Socks. Bottles. Anything can happen”? Watch and learn, young lotus blossoms.

Episode 1: Sense Memory

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