Latest James Franco Stories

By Michael Smith, Tulsa World, Okla. Aug. 6--So autobiographical were the hormones and humor of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's teen characters in "Superbad" that the men simply had to name them Seth and Evan. With the pals' follow-up, "Pineapple Express," one has to wonder how often the boys used to pretend they were a certain bong-powered comedy film team and fought over this question: Who gets to be Cheech, and who gets to be Chong? Their story is still one of male bonding and the...

By Jeff Vice Deseret News PINEAPPLE EXPRESS -- ** 1/2 -- Seth Rogen, James Franco; rated R (violence, drugs, profanity, gore, vulgarity, torture, slurs); Century Sandy and South Salt Lake; Cinemark Jordan Landing; Megaplex District, Gateway and Jordan Commons. If another, earlier stoner-culture comedy hadn't beaten it to the punch, "Pineapple Express" could have easily -- and perhaps more accurately -- been titled "Half Baked." The film tries to fuse elements from the "Harold & Kumar"...

By Craig D. Lindsey, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Aug. 6--For a movie where the gags are mostly delivered through a waft of weed smoke, and blood and bullets are just as liberally sprayed throughout, "Pineapple Express" has to be the most emo action-comedy I've ever seen. I kept expecting tunes from Sunny Day Real Estate and Dashboard Confessional to start playing during the shootouts. "Express" -- also known as this week's Judd Apatow movie -- works on a more highly sensitive scale...

By Michael Machosky, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Aug. 6--The stoner flick has been making a comeback lately for some reason -- or just finally got off the couch, which is more likely. "Pineapple Express" is the rare such film that's moderately entertaining to the non-high population -- and appears to be made by people who were in full possession of all their faculties. That's not saying much, though. The comic firepower behind this meandering movie is impressive -- from the prolific...

By Bob Strauss "Pineapple Express" captures the buzzy stupidity of chronic marijuana use better than any other comedy I've seen. And it gets the unlikely friendships that grow out of the buying and selling of pot remarkably right. Don't ask me how I know. Just rest assured that, as you're laughing your head off at this stoner comedy, it's all grounded in some pretty well-observed behavior. And that's even when it's satirizing drug buddy movie conventions and taking more exaggerated swipes...

By Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle Aug. 6--Seth Rogen won High Times magazine's Stony Award in 2007 for his work in the pothead romcom Knocked Up. He seems a likely nominee again for the award, which is given to the stoner of the year, for Pineapple Express, a film that puts Rogen on the stoner-movie equivalent of Marlon Brando's Oscar-nominated drama run in the 1950s. Those who go back with Rogen to his start on TV's Freaks and Geeks, where he played an implied stoner, aren't surprised...

By Daniel Neman, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. Aug. 6--The new stoner comedy "Pineapple Express" is endless, simply endless. Hey, maybe it could borrow one of those spare endings left over from "The Dark Knight." It wouldn't be a problem if the movie were actually funny, but it is most emphatically not. Which is sadly just what we have come to expect from the Judd Apatow comedy assembly line. Apatow has had a hand in releasing eight movies in 14 months -- four this summer alone. He is...

By Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News Aug. 6--I TALKED to a director the other day who was a bit miffed that I referred to his movie as being under "the Apatow umbrella." No offense intended. I was merely noting that as a producer, Judd Apatow has a knack for assembling diverse talent in a way that generates comedies of a consistent tone, and there's no better example of this than the pothead laugher "Pineapple Express." It's directed by David Gordon Green, an indie auteur noted for...

Movie actor James Franco says he plans to start classes at New York University graduate school this fall. Franco, who started out on TV's Freaks and Geeks and in the bio-pic James Dean, has co-starred in the Spider-Man trilogy and appeared in films like Sonny, City by the Sea, The Dead Girl and Flyboys. He reportedly graduated from the University of California in Los Angeles last month at the age of 30, after taking English literature classes for years. I am going back to school because I...

By Bob Kalinowski, The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Jun. 27--Alleged serial robber and burglar James Franco will likely stay in jail much longer this time. After his fifth arrest for a serious crime in eight months, prosecutors on Thursday called Franco "a clear and present danger to the residents of Luzerne County" and asked a judge to revoke his bail. The 30-year-old was free on bail in connection with four separate criminal cases when police say he held up a Posten Taxi cab...