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MetaCritic Score: 64

There’s no doubt about it, Seth Rogen is Hollywood’s new comedy golden boy, and he’s got the rapidly growing resume to prove it. Since bursting into the spotlight last summer with the hugely successful Knocked Up and Superbad, he has been in six films and has five more due out between now and 2010. Given that quantity of work, it isn’t a huge stretch to assume that the quality of these films might start to deteriorate, but, if action-comedy Pineapple Express is any indication of what is to come, then Rogen’s stoner persona and portly physique must belie some truly impressive mental and physical stamina.

In Pineapple Express, Rogen plays Dale Denton, a pot-smoking process server who unexpectedly witnesses a drug kingpin and a cop commit a murder and finds himself running for his life after he leaves behind a joint of an exceptionally rare strain of weed as he flees the scene in a panic. His clueless, and oddly sensitive, dealer, Saul, played by James Franco, gets dragged into the fray when the pair realize that it was Saul’s supplier, Ted Jones, who committed the murder, and that he is the only person in town who is currently selling this particular strain. Disoriented and paranoid by their continuous reefer intake, Dale and Saul find themselves in a series of absurd situations and close calls as they run for their lives, trying to evade both Ted’s thugs and crooked police.

The film’s finest moments are those where Rogen and Franco are paired together on screen and allowed to work the semi-improvised magic that Judd Apatow’s films have become famous for. Although it has been almost ten years since they last appeared on screen together in the short-lived, also Judd Apatow produced TV series Freaks and Geeks, the duo display a chemistry that approaches the level of Chris Farley and David Spade’s heyday in the mid-90s.

While Rogen is unquestionably the film’s star, it is Franco who I feel gives the more impressive overall performance. Pineapple Express represents a massive departure from the stream of cookie cutter Hollywood blockbusters and chick-flicks that he has appeared in over the past several years and Franco handles the transition with ease. The role of Saul just seemed to fit him perfectly in a way that reminded me of how well Matthew McConaughey fit as Wooderson in Dazed and Confused.

In addition to Rogen and Franco, the film features an array of hilarious supporting characters. The best of these performances are turned in by fellow Apatow favorites, Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan, who play Jones’s henchmen, Matheson and Budlofsky. Danny McBride also gets in a few of the film’s best lines (“You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherfucker!”) as Red, one of Jones’s distributors.

One of the best compliments I can pay to Pineapple Express is that of the few weaknesses that come to mind, most are just a matter of personal preference. I have never cared for Rosie Perez (who plays the crooked cop) or Gary Cole (Ted Jones), and neither of their performances did anything to change that opinion. I also thought the side plot surrounding Dale’s girlfriend should have either been paid more attention or been removed all together and had that screen time directed elsewhere. These were really only minor issues, however.

Pineapple Express, while not rising to the level of Knocked Up or Superbad, is a genuine success in its own right. Rogen and Franco are hilarious and the supporting cast backs up the stars so capably that any pro-sports team would kill to have a bench this deep. The action scenes are skillfully blended with the comedy, leaving the perfect degree of absurdity to match the film’s overall tone. Apatow has another hit on his hands and Rogen is cementing himself as someone the studio big-wigs will be turning to for years to come, so long as he eventually shows that he is able to succeed in a role that doesn’t involve him repeatedly smoking blunts. I’d recommend Pineapple Express to just about everyone with a sense of humor under the age of 30.

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