by Karyn L. Beach

I'm not a stoner. In fact, I've never been high (drunk plenty but never high). So, stoner comedies always fall sort of flat for me from Friday to How High and going all the way back to the Cheech and Chong movies. Having said that, there are some laughs to be had in Pineapple Express that you don't have to be stoned to appreciate.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a process server and stoner. He buys his weed from fellow stoner and dealer Saul (James Franco) who hits him up with some phenomenal weed called Pineapple Express. After smoking some of the good stuff, he goes to deliver a subpeona to big shot drug dealer Ted Jones (Gary Cole). As he attempts to make the delivery, he witnesses Ted and a policewoman (Rosie Perez) kill a rival. Dale heads back to Saul's. It's a small world because Ted is Saul's supplier and since Dale dropped his doobie in the getaway, Ted is able to find him by tracking the Pineapple Express.

Now, throw in another drug dealer (Danny McBride), the two henchmen (Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson) on their tails, a high school girlfiriend (Amber Heard) and her parents (Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn) and you have an idea of the pandemonium that is Pineapple Express.

While a lot of the stoner humor elluded me, this was one well-written script that had some classic one-liners. When goading Dale into smelling the Pineapple Express, Saul says that it smells like "God's vagina." This is one of those films that will be often quoted. Franco and Rogen are good in their respective buddy roles as is McBride as a new buddy later in the film.

There's a great car chase midway through that manages to be both exciting and funny but where the movie really fell flat for me is towards the end. As the pair sobered up, the film delved into one long fight sequence and while it was great to see Rosie Perez in uber-tough girl mode duking it out with a dude, it was just way too long.

If you are into blunts and such, you'll probably appreciate Pineapple Express a lot more than I did. But even if you don't appreciate that kind of humor this is one clever and well-written film that might be worth your time.