After a particularly lucrative drug deal with his lazier still dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), which sees Denton pick up a rare new strain –– the eponymous Pineapple Express –– Denton witnesses a murder by a crooked cop and the city's most dangerous drug lord and is forced on the run with Silver.

Pineapple Express draws many similarities with the vast glut of productions from the Seth Rogan/Evan Goldberg writing team, which were behind the hugely popular Superbad and Knocked Up.

The male, buddy-buddy adventure narrative is much the same as Superbad and feels too much like it has been simply lifted and dropped into a different setting to be entirely original.

This encapsulates the major problem with Pineapple Express. Rogan and Goldberg have clearly found a formula of writing and creating films which goes down well at the box office, but the creativity which seemed fresh with the duo's earlier films now feels too familiar now, and it is all too easy to write the pair off as one-trick ponies.

On its own, or perhaps for fans of the pair's work, Pineapple Express is enjoyable enough. The film has more than its share of entertaining moments and, although many are not quite as laugh-out-load funny as you may be hoping for, they are easily capable of raising a smile - with an extensive three way brawl and car chase being the best of the bunch.
Seth Rogan does a competent job as Denton, but the lazy slacker role is one he has had more than one roll of the dice with.

The star of the show here really is James Franco. Playing a role far away from his most recognisable, scowling character as Peter Parker's friend Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man trilogy, Franco is fantastic as super laid-back, dopey drug dealer Silver in a smoking performance that blows away the rest of the cast.

The film's gun-packed climax is admittedly good fun but drags its heels for just a little bit too long and feels like a lot was left in purely to pad out the 111 minute running time.

Pineapple Express is not the worst film to come from the team Rogan camp, but far from being the best either. Fans of the formula will inevitably come away with a plethora of new lines to endlessly quote, but it is hard not to walk away frustrated by how unimaginative the finished product is, especially with the clear talent of Rogan and Goldberg behind it.