Think of this one as "Harold and Kumar Go to New Jack City." Loveable stoners meet brutal drug dealers with unexpected results. But because "Pineapple Express" is attached to the Judd Apatow creative enclave, expect a completely befuddling, incredibly witty and occasionally overthe-top joy ride.

Dale (Seth Rogen) is a potsmoking process server. Saul (James Franco) is his neighborhood dealer. Between the two of them, there's a rare moment when reality rears its ugly head. Both live in a blissful, irrelevant haze.

One day Saul introduces Dale to a new, high-octane crop of fresh bud, a Hawaiian blend known as "Pineapple Express." Dale's on his way to serve a guy (Gary Cole) who just happens to be a drug lord. As fate would have it, Dale happens to witness the man commit a murder.

Without bothering to explain (because this is a stoner film, after all), Dale and Saul find themselves on the run. There you have it, "Pineapple Express" in a nutshell.

Except that Apatow happened to produce, David Gordon Green directed, and Seth Rogen cowrote. The dialogue is exceptionally clever and astute. Basically every flick you've ever seen is simply a case of (a) conflict and (b) resolution. Whether one is dealing with stoners or rocket scientists, dialogue's the key to cinematic bliss. Judd Apatow and his minions know good dialogue.

The first half of "Pineapple Express" is rolling-on-the-floor funny in a stoner film sort of way.

Of course, if the very thought of a stoner film troubles you, then I suggest another film. Societal conflicts aside (this is a movie review after all), I suspect only ardent substance opponents might confuse marijuana with heroin or cocaine or those drugs about which dark, serious films are made.

The only threatening film made about pot, and that would be "Reefer Madness" in 1936, has been a cult, counterculture favorite for as long as I can remember.

Dale and Saul bond in a stoned, buddy sort of way, which is admittedly goofy and endearing. But then a drug war explodes and people die, and even though the film turns surprisingly violent here and there, these deaths don't seem overly offensive.

But be warned, because blood does flow. It's just that I can't bring myself to use the word gratuitous. Incongruent, perhaps, but not quite gratuitous.

I suppose, should one choose to attach an aura of morality, it's that crime (even smoking pot) is potentially trouble-prone and may lead to the demise of numerous pushers. But "Pineapple Express" is so over-the-top funny that one can't stop laughing long enough to contemplate the gravity of such an utterly ridiculous situation.

A few years ago, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" presented a gently magical tale of four girlfriends (America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively) sharing a summer adventure, finding love and discovering personal awakenings.

They buy and share a pair of secondhand jeans that fits each of their different bodies perfectly— and when each is in possession of the pants, vaguely magical things happen. Free of hardedged reality, this warm tale was terrific for the preteen, let's-fall-in-love crowd, a family film (although boys will fidget) in which all four tales managed to weave splendidly together.

"The Sisterhoood of the Traveling Pants 2" is more of the same—the same pants, the same friends, now embarking upon separate lives, enrolled in college, spending another summer of maturing and blossoming.

The pants play a lesser roll in the sequel, and each of the four stories isn't perhaps quite as nicely honed, yet the film displays the same TLC regarding young women in search of their identities.

Think of this one as "Sex in the City" without the adult phobias, cynicism, man-bashing and fear of life after 40.

Not quite a "date movie" (because, yes, boys will fidget), it's a perfect girlfriend movie and, as sequels go, a pretty good one. Yeah, some of the plots are thin, the happy endings superficial— but in an increasingly dark and brooding cinematic summer, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

And there's a good chunk of Greece involved—apparently Hollywood's new go-to place for happiness and romance.