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I had low hopes for Pineapple Express after the "okay" Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but thankfully, my low expectations opened me up for a fun night at the movies. We went to a late showing, and it was really funny to look across the audience and realize that most of the couples were actually two guy buddies and I was one of few women in the audience. Ric says that when we left, I was probably the only girl who was fine with having spent the last couple of hours watching a stoner comedy.

Seth Rogen plays Dale, a process server who happens to witness a murder right before he serves a subpoena. He runs for help to his pot dealer, Saul, who buys his pot from Red (Danny McBride), who takes orders from the murderer, Ted (Gary Cole). Dale and Saul, who have previously only hung out while smoking pot together, are suddenly being hunted down by some powerful people.

The movie begins in a very relaxed way, pretty much like a high (not that I..). It moves at a stoner's pace, and then when Dale and Saul are faced with trying to save their own lives, the movie moves more towards being an action comedy. The funny thing, too, is that Dale eventually realizes that everything bad that's happening to him pretty much happens because he's high. The hole they dig themselves into gets deeper and deeper the more often they stop to smoke some Pineapple Express.

I think the funniest parts of this movie aren't the obvious jokes - they're just the stoner behaviorisms. From the very start, simple scenes like the one in Saul's apartment that make the movie funny. James Franco is perfect in his role. Later on in the movie, the action and physical comedy scenes are set up to make the audience laugh more, but really the characters are what's funny more than the situation that they're in. One thing I enjoyed is watching regular guys get placed in an action situation, and seeing how they respond to it. They aren't natural men of action, so when they are in the middle of an action scene and stop to say "Ew!" when a guy gets knifed, that's what makes me laugh.

There are plenty of jokes that are misses, but there are many more that aren't. This movie does hit a level of sincerity, but doesn't do that in such a forced way as Sarah Marshall. While the first half rings a little more true, I think the action-based second half works in its own way. It's not going to win any big awards, but it made me laugh, and I'm glad I saw it.