Up vs Pineapple Express

Ryan: Every time I see a Pixar movie, I immediately default to the side of my personality prone to exaggeration.

Cliff: So, your regular personality.

Ryan: Whatever. I’m getting worried no one believes me. A new Pixar comes out, and I say it’s the greatest anything ever.

Cliff: Yeah, if it’s all understood that Pixar is just good, always, period, then there’s not much you can say that’s gonna provide any proof it was necessary for you to review it in the first place.

Ryan: Thanks.

Cliff: No, seriously. It’s probably why Pixar movies never win the major Oscars. They don’t surprise anyone with their greatness anymore. It’s like Meryl Streep. To win big awards again, or to get audiences really enthusiastic for her again, she’s gonna have to do something alternative and nuts and borderline unlikable. Without debate, she’s not gonna stir things up. If we all just agree that Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson or whoever is essential to the movie-going experience, then the scope of how great they are is being taken somewhat for granted. It’s the same with Pixar movies. If one was so daring and unusual that it ran the risk of not being liked, it might truly become an achievement, and this little thing you do here would become necessary.

Ryan: “Again”. Can you at least say “again”?

Cliff: Necessary. Again. 

Ryan: Pixar movies are essential. You have to see them, because they’re always good. Up is good. It’s no surprise. Go see it. The end.

Cliff: Don’t be like that. Recap a little.

Ryan: Carl Frederickson is a widower who’s been evicted from his house and sent to a retirement community. Instead of cooperating, he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies to it South America.

Cliff: Happens more often than you think.

Ryan: He’s got a stowaway named Russell, who is one of my favorite movie characters lately.

Cliff: I like that Russell’s a regular kid, but not in a bratty way. He’s not some bully that has to be taught a lesson or manners by Carl. He’s just a flaky kid. Is he the first Asian kid to have the lead in a Disney movie?

Ryan: Oh wow. I just realized something. Up is Gran Torino.

Cliff: Ha.

Ryan: Gruff old guy being bullied into a retirement home, won’t leave his house, buddies up with an Asian kid to fight bad guys. Awesome.

Cliff: There’s even a sweet dog. 

Ryan: Up is such a good movie. Visually it’s incredible, but that’s sort of secondary in my book to the relationship between Carl and Russell. I’m always drawn to movies about unconventional friendships. Harold and Maude, Lost in Translation. I think Up would make a nice bookend to either of those movies. Carl is played by Ed Asner, who is perfect. I want every Pixar movie from now to have the voice of an old guy from a 1970s sitcom. Get Bob Newhart’s agent on the phone.

Cliff:  The story’s great, but I don’t want to discount those visuals any. I saw it 3D, but you really don’t have to. Up is so colorful and vast. The sky just goes and goes, and the scenes in Brazil are so bright I kept lifting up my glasses to get a better look. It was worth sacrificing the 3D effect to see those colors.

Ryan: So you were maybe stoned when you saw Up?

Cliff: No. But if a person were going to be the kind of person who does something like that, then Up is a movie that might be a satisfying experience for him. If that’s what a person were into.

Ryan: I see. Nice segue, by the way.

Cliff: I do what I can.

Ryan: Pineapple Express is a stoner movie, obviously, but also a story of an unconventional friendship, which is the part I was drawn to.

Cliff: You know what I liked about Pineapple Express? How amazed the characters were to be participating in this adventure that normally only happens in movies. The same sort of thing happens in Up. It would be truly amazing to be in a car chase, or to have a fight inside a zeppelin, and in each movie, the characters acknowledge their weird luck.

Ryan: Well to do otherwise would imply that the characters had never seen a movie before, and especially in the case of Pineapple Express, that’s fairly unbelievable.

Cliff: Great acting all around, but Danny McBride is my favorite.

Ryan: I liked Danny McBride so much I don’t think I ever want to see him in anything else. I just want him to be that guy. He’s so nice and grateful and violent. It’s one of those parts that looks like Jack Black on paper, but McBride does something different with it.

Cliff: So, Seth Rogan gets his pot from James Franco, and then, one night, witnesses a murder, and the pot he leaves at the scene implicates him as a witness. Violence and hilarity follow.

Ryan: It’s both more violent and more funny than I predicted.

Cliff: And nicer too. It’s so good-hearted.

Ryan: No it’s not. Pineapple Express seems good-hearted, because you expected it to be darker. Because it surprised you, it amplified your reaction. It’s the opposite of the Pixar effect. 

Cliff: Right. I expected Up to be fantastic, it was, and I had virtually no reaction. Pineapple Express defied certain expectations, so it becomes more notable, even though it’s not quite as good. 

Ryan: We’ve reached that point? Where good is boring?

Cliff: Yep, and boring is bad. And so, good is bad.

Ryan: We did this, didn’t we? 

Cliff: Yeah. Well, people like us. But we’re in good company. Seth Rogan and James Franco are probably the same way, making their friends watch flawed movies they deem awesome, and then brushing aside better movies for being mainstream. The director, David Gordon Green, usually makes tiny little indie movies that are loved but seen by few. He’s probably a little embarrassed Pineapple Express was such a hit. He knows deep down it makes it a little less cool. He’s wrong though. A good movie is good no matter who paid for it.

Ryan: I know. Everybody’s favorite last year was Dark Knight, and it’s practically its own corporation. It’s like the entirety of the Pixar catalog by itself.  I think I’m gonna tell everyone that Up sucked. I’ll be the lone voice of derision, and then when people see it, they’ll be furious and start loudly praising it everywhere they go.

Cliff: And then people will love it. People will love Up, because you said so. They might even look into other Pixar movies, and love them as well. All because of you.

Ryan: It’s a good feeling.

Up: A

Pineapple Express: B+