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Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Rosie Perez, Gary Cole, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Amber Heard, Ed Begley, Jr., Nora Dunn. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Directed by David Gordon Green. 110 minutes. Sony Pictures.

Your tolerance for Pineapple Express, the new stoner comedy featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco as a pair of bumbling potheads accidentally on the lam from drug dealers and corrupt cops, may depend on how funny you find two actors who find themselves very funny. I didn’t.

Hapless subpoena server Dale Denton (Rogen) has a crappy job, a high-school girlfriend (Amber Heard) and an addiction to marijuana, fed by equally out-of-it dealer Saul Silver (Franco), who trafficks in special strains of weed with names like Snicklefritz and Pineapple Express (a.k.a God’s vagina).

When Dale inadvertently witnesses a murder committed by a dirty cop (Rosie Perez) and a small-time hood (Gary Cole), the pair finds themselves on the run, pitted against a ruthless drug lord.

Along for the ride is inept middleman Red (Danny McBride), leading to a mildly amusing sequence involving a trashed apartment. Two bizarre henchmen (Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) are also in pursuit, featuring a lisping, unfunny stereotype.

Directed by—surprisingly—David Gordon Green, the observant creator of George Washignton, All the Real Girls and this year’s Snow Angels, Pineapple Express shares none of his trademark subtlety or taste.

However, he does manage one clever scene in a B&W prologue testing dangerous “Item #9”, set in a secret government facility and resulting in a campy, Reefer Madness tone. And a car chase involving a no-nonsense cop, a Slurpee and a foot through a windshield offers a few laughs.

The Judd Apatow cannon of geek-as-leading-man movies is growing tiresome, and co-writer Rogen (winning in Knocked Up), who screams in a monotone through much of the film, grates. Franco fares better as a contemporary Jeff Spicoli, liberated by comedy in a breakout turn.

A contemporary Cheech and Chong film that oddly descends into a routine shoot-em-up and yep—more Hollywood explosions—Pineapple Express forces viewers to play designated driver to freewheeling rants loaded with crude dialogue and obvious improvisation.

If your idea of fun is watching two actors make fools of themselves leapfrogging around a forest in slow motion, knock yourself out. Pineapple Express gives new meaning to the term mindless entertainment.