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Fans of an extraordinary filmmaker like David Gordon Green may be a little caught of guard that his latest feature is a mainstream stoner comedy. He happens to be in good hands with Judd Apatow serving as producer on Pineapple Express, but is this genre Green's forte? Despite its numerous flaws, the film has the potential to catapult Green into the mainstream limelight, enabling him to get bigger budgeted projects off the ground. Unfortunately, Pineapple has a disjointed quality and is filled with paranoia and delusion; the perfect elements for a comedy about two stoners who inadvertently start a drug war.

Frequent Apatow collaborator Seth Rogen re-teams with his Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg and stars as Dale, who despite having a decent job as a process server, still can't seem to get it together. The chronic that Dale loves almost as much as his girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) comes from his dealer Saul (James Franco), who clearly uses his own product. Dale and Saul's journey begins when Saul lays on Dale a sample of weed called "Pineapple Express." Never one to turn down a taste of something new, Dale takes a few hits with Saul before delivering one last summons for the night. He's supposed to serve papers to one Ted Jones (Gary Cole again pushing the limit with his comedic characterizations) and while sitting in his parked car, Dale takes just few more hits of that chronic only to witness Ted and a female cop blow the brains of an Asian man. In a panic Dale bangs up the cop's squad car with his Cadillac and drives away, but there's just one problem. He dropped the leftover roach of "Pineapple Express" at the scene.

Pineapple Express has a strong opening and then somewhere in the middle of the story, the situations get too silly and take unnecessary detours from the main story. There's a confrontation with Angie's rifle wielding dad that gets out of hand, Dale and Saul get chased while driving a stolen police car and the typical argument where they go their separate ways only to reunite for the climax. Thankfully the picture recovers in its third act which involves verbal, physical and artillery assaults. This is where much of the male bonding occurs and though, at times, they can be over-the-top it's appropriate for this type of story.

Rogen has played a leading man before and though he excels as the funny guy, he's actually much more humorous as the "straight man." The opposite can be said of Franco, who despite his good looks has a goofy and comedic talent that is rarely tapped. They're both veterans of Apatow's nearly forgotten cult TV series Freaks and Geeks and their relationship isn't like an odd couple, but more like a marriage.

Despite the fact that Apatow serves as producer, Green isn't interested in following the man's familiar formula and has brought aboard his creative team of cinematographer Tim Orr to give the film a greater scope. There's no doubt that Hollywood will be knocking on Green's door with more opportunities after the release of this film. It would be a good thing too, because they could use more creative minds like his.

Latino Review Rating: C+