Watching ‘Pineapple Express’ last night with a full audience, I wondered why there hadn’t been a chorus of Apatow’s critics pointing out how different a movie this is from the usual Apatow thing – outside of the usual “Can you believe David Gordon Green directed a comedy? Clearly that’s impossible, as all human beings are one-dimensional!”. From ‘Anchorman’ through ‘Step Brothers’, these movies all have a similar feel, similar rhythm, similar dick jokes. It’s not that ‘Express’ is unrecognizable as an Apatow movie – there’s the usual male-bonding brotherhood thing going on. There’s Seth Rogen and James Franco. There’s naughty jokes and gross outs.

What’s so different – and so great about it – is the violence. read more »

That is until May 30.

See, there was a time when I trusted Ebert as a film critic, mainly based on his love of Halloween. At a time when most critics seemed to hate the movies I loved, Ebert saw the genius in this simple slasher movie.

And he also likes Dave’s movies, which helps his case.

But then there are these reviews for Raising Arizona and Napoleon Dynamite… the mind boggles.

Ebert got old, I guess.

snowy.

foggy.

spicy.

sexy.

bye.

Went to NC over the weekend to give a seminar with Nick on television production for the kids at School of the Arts. Herewith, a review:

Drove through VA mountains in snowstorm. In 3rd gear. At 30 miles an hour for a good portion of the ride. Lots of cars were in snowy ditches. Luckily, mine was not.

True to form, Winston seemed frozen in time. Still foggy and cold, with the same buildings and streets as when I left it. Strange.

After the seminars, had dinner with friends new and old at Monterray’s. Which has been in the same place for years. In the big version of that pic, it’s (l to r): Nick, Tim Orr, Dave Green, Craig Zobel, and George Smith.

Some 3rd year dudes threw us a kickin’ party. They wanted to get us laid. It was nice of them. Unfortunately, I can only remember two names of the dudes: Nate and Brett. It was really more than we could have hoped for.

The last day, we had lunch with our movie star friends and hit the road.