Pineapple Express, the blend, is a marijuana so sublime that smoking it "is like killing a unicorn", the dealer who sells it exclusively observes. It can also get you in a lot of trouble, get you hunted, bring you a couple of bullets in the stomach and cost you a precious part of your ear. Pineapple Express, the movie, on the other hand, is a deranged and unexpectedly sweet ode to male friendship, which is hilarious, bizarre and disorienting in equal parts. It comes from Jude Apatow's school of comedy and is in the same league as his previous hits Knocked Up and Superbad, but a refreshing outsider's tone and surprising bits of visual poetry make the cinematic blend as desired and potent as the titular pot concoction.

The credit for the latter should go to director David Gordon Green, a treasured name on the art house scene with films like Undertow, George Washington and Snow Angels who displays such a deft touch in a mainstream setting that it may turn out that Hollywood's ongoing quest for bankable directors has yielded another name.

The star of the movie is Apatow regular Seth Rogen. He plays Dale as a process server of many disguises who likes his job because it gives him lots of time to smoke his pot. He shares the screen with James Franco who plays his good-hearted and perpetually stoned dealer Saul. In his amicable haze Saul wants the ever-polite Dale to be his best friend and smoothes the going by offering him - exclusively - the titular blend of pot.

Things are set in motion when Dale drops by to serve a subpoena to Saul's supplier Ted Jones (Gary Cole) on the way to an awkward dinner with the parents of his high school girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard). Instead of serving the papers and going about his evening Dale bears witness to a murder. In a privileged viewing for Dale's horrified eyes, Ted and a female cop (Rosie Perez) kill an Asian man, and the best Dale could do is throw away his half-smoked joint, wreck the police car and flee the scene in terror.

Ted, however, sees the joint and immediately traces it back to his only dealer and the latter's preferred customer and sends his duo of incompetent goons after them. Soon enough Saul and Dale are bonding out of necessity, occasionally stopping for a smoke or to take revenge on Saul's treacherous and surprisingly resilient business associate Red (Danny McBride) who it turns out is also quick to bestow best friend status on whoever is not shooting at him. There are car chases that would make William Friedkin proud and cheerfully presented violence and mutilations, which would do the same for Tarantino.

Rogen is adequately amusing as the constantly stressed out layabout, yet at times one has a feeling that he overplays his bit. Franco is a revelation, however, as the stoned Saul and makes the pothead's profound and absurd logic and actions natural and effortless. As for McBride, he steals every scene he appears in with his affable mannerisms and inspired delivery. In fact, many of the scenes involving these three have an air of improvisation and inventiveness, which is pleasingly fresh and in tune with the happily farcical tone that the movie flirts with in the protracted finale. It is adorned with guns and explosions, which plays like a good-natured parody of 1980s action movies. When you add all this up you end up with a movie that induces silly laughs even if you're not as high as the characters while you are watching it.