The short version:  Seth Rogen and other members of Team Apatow attempt to make the equivalent of a Cohen Brothers movie.  It sorta works, it sorta doesn’t.  If you were as stoned as Seth Rogen or as James Franco’s character, you probably won’t mind its shortcomings.

All the reviews are true, Franco steals this movie.  Every scene he is not in, it is hard to pay attention.  When I read the original idea for the film, I thought it sounded really fun, very Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  I think Pineapple Express went back to the main plot too much.  I didn’t really care about the story of the crooked cop and the drug dealers.  I’ve seen that movie many times.  I don’t think it was necessary to keep showing them plotting.  I think it would have been a much better movie if it had just followed Rogen and Franco the entire time.  Yeah, they could wander into important moments, ala R&S bumping into Hamlet, but there should not have been any scenes that they were not a part of.

Funny movie, good way to kill 90+ minutes on a rainy night, but probably my least favorite of the Team Apatow releases.