Dale and Saul need to be good long term friends

Rating: 4/10 (30 May 2014)

Process server and stoner Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) has a high school girlfriend Angie Anderson (Amber Heard). His slacker dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) has a new strain of weed called Pineapple Express. Dale is serving to Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and witnesses him and a cop (Rosie Perez) committing a murder. Jones is a dangerous drug lord and finds Dale's discarded Pineapple Express joint. Dale runs to Saul, and now they have to run for their lives from Jones' henchmen Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) and Matheson (Craig Robinson).
It's a weed action thriller from Seth and Evan. The biggest missing element from this is a long term friendship between the guys. This is a classic buddy comedy without the classic buddy. Cheech and Chong were always long time buddies. There is nothing holding Dale and Saul together. It makes more sense if they could easily turn on each other. It makes no sense that Saul would stick his neck out for Dale. Also they are missing the buddy comedy aspect. Every joke loses a little on the friendship discount. It's a big missing ingredient. Rogen and Franco are still the likable goofballs. They serve up their usual weed up characters. There is a bit of action. It's not done for thrills but more for comedy.