Another brilliant comedy from Judd Apatow! I laughed all the way through this movie, An hilarious cast along with an hilarious storyline. Stoners and non-stoners alike will find laughs in this film. Due to its comedic and sarcastic style, A sequel would definitely be something people would like to see. Seth Rogen and James Franco deliver in bucket loads!

Pineapple Express has all the elements you'd expect from the genre: male bonding, immature sexual desires, verbal scatology, formidable drug abuse, fight scenes, gunfire, explosions. Yawn? Not this time. It's a quality movie even if the material is unworthy of the treatment. As a result, yes, it's a druggie comedy that made me laugh.Yes indeed Saul and Dale are the best stoner comedy team since Cheech and Chong.

'The Pineapple Express' is a stoner comedy about two potheads who accidentally start a war between competing drug lords. Given that, I expected a goofy comedy about the drugs and sex. What I didn't expect was that the movie would grow excessively violent, even gory. When a man's head is splattered against a window, it puts a kink in the laughs.

Seth Rogan - who should to have the words "Average Joe" tattooed on his neck - stars as Dale Denton, a nice guy who works as a process server. He is in love with his girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) who is a senior in High School (he's in his 30s) and they are serious enough that he is ready to meet her parents. He wants to make a good impression but it isn't likely that Angie's parents would approve of Dale's best buddy Saul (James Franco from 127 Hours). Saul is a happy, genial pothead who spends half of his time selling his herb, and the other half inventing new ways to get high. His latest: The Trifecta, a cross-shaped joint that can be lit at three points, thus increasing the potency. Also new to his arsenal is The Pineapple Express, a joint with an effect that he describes as so illegal that it is a crime against nature, "like killing unicorns."

The problem for Dale begins after a visit to Saul, when he is asked to serve a summons to, ironically enough, Saul's supplier, a violent drug lord named Ted Jones (Gary Cole). Parked in front of his house, smoking The Pineapple Express, he sees a squad car parked behind him and throws the joint out the window. He also sees, through a giant window, a man inside the house shot in the head. Dale panics and tries to make a very clumsy getaway while parallel parked. Ted and the corrupt lady cop (Rosie Perez) - who brought that squad car - find the joint, know it is from Saul and determine to kill him. This leads Dale and Saul on a wild chase from Ted's hit men while having little time to figure out what to do, or for Dale to figure out how he is going to sideline the chase in order to have dinner with Angie's parents.

The movie sounds like a wacky comedy and for most of the way, it is. But WOW is it violent. There are moments when people are shot and the blood splatters from their bodies. The man in Ted's house is shot in the head and his brains splatter all over the window. Offset that with elements that would be at home in a Cheech and Chong movie and you have a very uncomfortable mix. The characters of Dale and Saul are written as silly doofuses while the characters of the drug lords and the hit men seem grounded in reality, like something out of Scarface.

The movie comes courtesy of a very odd mixture of talents. It was directed by David Gordon Green, who has made two great true-life dramas All the Real Girls and George Washington. It was written by Judd Apatow, the man who has reinvented the notion of the sex comedy by featuring stories about 30-ish males suffering from arrested development. He made Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek and Knocked Up. Here, I think the two styles clash together in an unwholesome mixture. Instead of adolescent adult males facing reality, they are involved in nasty car chases and bloody shoot-outs that interrupt the momentum of the comedy. Given the talent involved, this was a wasted opportunity.

**1/2 (of four)

Christopher Nolan (and cast) have pulled off what I hadn't dared to dream - a Batman every bit as good as Burton/Keaton's vision - and eradicated the camp, feverish memories of Clooney, Kilmer and (cough..) O'Donnell.

The story is as good an origin story as you'll find - covering all the major (true-to-the-comic) events, and not wasting ages on them. We see Wayne's all-important training period (previously ignored), and his connection to the Tibetan shadow-ninja clan led by Ra's Al Ghul. We see Bruce come up with ideas for his symbol, his costume, his gadgets, his car, his cave - IT ALL FITS SO PERFECTLY.

That's not all - Liam Neeson is perfect (as ever, when Lucas isn't writing his lines), Batman's first mad nemesis (the Scarecrow) is genuinely frightening; with some outstandingly scary 'fear' effects.. Gary Oldman looks just like a young Commissioner Gordon (and doesn't dominate), Morgan Freeman and Rutger Hauer give solid heavyweight support to the boardroom machinations at Wayne Enterprizes. I love Michael Gough(?) but Michael Caine is great as Alfred. It's only Katie Holmes who didn't ring true for me - not because of her performance, but simply because she looks all of 15 years old (sorry Katie). I am always blown away by Christian Bale, and this is no exception.

The fights are great, the Bat-gadgets all there, the car is amazing, the plot is thorough and exciting, Gotham looks great, Batman really is frightening & menacing (and lethal!).. And the scenes with the bats themselves FINALLY get across the idea of how scary they can be.

There is some humour, but it's fairly dry. The soundtrack, like all the best original soundtracks, is excellent - you hardly know it's there, but the emotions of the scene are enhanced and boosted. For the most part this is a serious Batman film, with plenty for long-time fans. This NEW Batman is one I'd like to see again. Bravo Mr Nolan, bravo.

David Gordon Green, that poet of the cinema, is the last person you'd expect to find directing a Judd Apatow male-buddy comedy about two potheads who start a drug war. But he does such a good job, there's a danger he'll become in demand by mainstream Hollywood and tempted away from the greatness he showed in "George Washington" and "Undertow." (I can imagine his agent hiding this review from him.)

"Pineapple Express" has all the elements you'd expect from the genre: male bonding, immature sexual desires, verbal scatology, formidable drug abuse, fight scenes, gunfire, explosions. Yawn? Not this time. It's a quality movie even if the material is unworthy of the treatment. As a result, yes, it's a druggie comedy that made me laugh.

The heroes are a process server named Dale (Seth Rogen) and his drug dealer Saul (James Franco). Both are stoned in every single scene. Dale has a romance going with Angie (Amber Heard), who I hope is of legal age, although physical sex isn't necessarily involved. I think Dale is still at the age of emotional development where going all the way means asking a girl to go steady. Saul is even more pathetic, hiding in his apartment filled with electronic gizmos and merchandise.

Dale drops in on Saul one day to buy some weed, and Saul gives him a sample of a new product just imported by his connection. This is Pineapple Express, a blend of marijuana so sublime, he says, that even smoking it is a crime "like killing a unicorn." Dale gets high on the aroma alone. Floating away from Saul's after a hallucinatory conversation, he goes to serve a summons on Ted Jones (Gary Cole), the very man Saul gets his pot from.

Parked in front of the house for one last toke, Dale is horrified to see a squad car parked behind him, and throws away the joint. Then he has a front-row seat to witness, through a huge glass wall, a man being shot dead by Ted and a female cop (Rosie Perez). He speeds away, leaving Ted to find the joint, sample it, identify it and realize that the murder witness bought it from Saul. The buddies know Ted will make this connection, and begin a desperate flight from Ted's incompetent hit men. This leads them into a funny stumble through a forest preserve, the loss of their car, and Dale's attempt to plausibly sit through dinner with Angie's parents (Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn) while stoned, bleeding, torn, disheveled and in need of being hosed down.

The critic James Berardinelli observes: "A lot of buddy films aren't fundamentally that different from romantic comedies. The relationships are often developed in the same fashion, only with male bonding replacing sexual chemistry." Does that make Dale and Saul gay, even if they're not aware of it? I think that describes the buddies in a lot of buddy movies produced by Judd Apatow, including the recent "Step Brothers." Especially in the obligatory happy ending, there's a whole lot of hugging and chanting of "I love you, man!"

A third major character enters the scene when Dale and Saul visit Saul's buddy Red (Danny R. McBride), who has already betrayed them to the hit men. All of this leads, don't ask how, to a full-scale war between Ted's men and a rival drug empire, "The Asians," who attack conveniently dressed in matching black uniforms, which makes them easy targets under the sun lamps of Ted's indoor pot farm. Many, many people die horribly, none more thoroughly than poor Rosie Perez.

Two teams have met to make this picture: the Apatow production line, and Green and his cameraman Tim Orr, soundman Chris Gebert, actor Danny McBride and others he met at the North Carolina School of the Arts. As always, even in their zero-budget first effort, Green and Orr use wide-screen compositions with graceful visual instincts, although you may be excused for not noticing them, considering what happens. The movie even transcends the usual chase, this time between two squad cars. To my amazement, I found it exciting and very funny, especially the business about Saul's leg.

"Pineapple Express" is the answer to the question, "What would happen if a movie like this was made by a great director?" This question descends directly from those old rumors that Stanley Kubrick was going to make a porn film. Give it a moment's thought. And I suspect Green of foiling Apatow's vow to include at least one penis in every one of his comedies. This time, it's not a penis, but a finger, and a good thing, too.

Be aware:Despite a "warning," the movie is enthusiastically pro-pot.