Stoner comedies rarely find an audience beyond the people who relate to the spaced out characters depicted therein. The weed humour will pass by audiences who's tipple of choice is based in fermentation rather than agriculture.

Dude, Where's My Car was critically slaughtered, but found a wide (and stoned) audience on TV, as did the more recent Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies. 

This is treading the same ground - random visual jokes, wacky dialogue - but given the current popularity of the Apatow-led crowd (thanks to the likes of Knocked Up, Superbad et al), a larger audience awaits the Pineapple Express, a movie that wears it's weed-riddled heart on its hot rock-burnt sleeve.

It all begins with Dale, a 20-something court order server, who drives around town delivering bad news in such brief stints it allows him to smoke copious amounts of marijuana between deliveries. And when he's not smoking and serving, Denton's hanging out with his high school girlfriend.

After a visit to his weed dealer, Saul (Franco), Dale heads to a mansion to deliver some more bad news. Only before he can hand the court order over, Dale witnesses a cop shooting a gangster in cold blood. When the bad guys spot his erratic escape, a quick test of a discarded joint butt leads the gangsters to Saul's front door.

Stoned, paranoid and desperate, Saul and Dale flee, with only a bag of munch and an even bigger bag of weed to keep them going.

The ensuing madness flits between comedy genius and stoned laziness. The attention to homage-detail is patently obvious - the can't-turn-to-the-cops paranoia is pure 80s cinema while the buddy formula has John Hughes written all over it.

Seth Rogen's amiable stoner from Knocked Up returns, only this time louder, while Franco is superb as the massively stoned dealer, all understatement and mannerisms compared to Rogen's shout-and-flail approach.

The real credit here, however, belongs to the script. Writers Apatow, Evan Goldberg and Rogen himself go to town on the dialogue and references, not to mention the ridiculous set pieces that director David Gordon Green just about manages to translate on screen.

Pineapple Express wasn't written with awards in mind, but it might just manage some critical respect and box office success before the home cinema plaudits roll in.

As stoner comedies go, it's of a high enough grade for even Cheech & Chong themselves to roll up in a Rizla.

Rich Phippen