James Franco flies his freak flag -- as in "Freaks and Geeks" -- once more in "Pineapple Express."

If there's a reason to see "Pineapple Express," it's Franco, in a dizzy departure from "Spider-Man's" Harry Osborn and his Emmy-nominated turn as James Dean in a 2001 TNT movie.

If that's the good news, the bad news is that his performance is embedded in a 112-minute movie that seems like a lumpy blend of a half-dozen genres, including stoner comedy, action movie, buddy picture and message film, with echoes of 1970s cop shows and all the trappings of an R rating.

Based on an idea by the prolific and ubiquitous Judd Apatow -- "What would an action movie be like if the leads were chronically stoned?" -- it stars Seth Rogen as a process server named Dale Denton who smokes on and off the job, has an 18-year-old girlfriend still in high school and a dealer named Saul Silver (Franco).

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'Pineapple Express'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen
• Rating: R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence.
• Website: pineappleexpress

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Saul, with hair past his shoulders and the slouchy wardrobe suited to watching "The Jeffersons" reruns until the buzzer brings a customer to his door, started to sell pot so he could put his Bubby in a nice retirement home.

In his perpetual haze, he doesn't quite process Saul's job as a process server. "You're a servant, like a butler? You shine shoes? ... Wish I had an easy job."

Peddling a new strain of pot called Pineapple Express, Saul has an easy job until Dale witnesses a murder by a drug lord (Gary Cole) and a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and tosses his tell-tale roach outside the car. Since Saul is the exclusive dealer of Pineapple Express, Dale realizes the murderers will go after them.

He and Saul go on the run, but, as he acknowledges, "We are not very functional when we're high." And neither is much of the movie, which proceeds with the accuracy of a car with a windshield covered in Slushee.

It's either indulgent, as with a drug middleman played by "Foot Fist Way" star Danny McBride, who seems to be ad-libbing daffy details in between the violence, or over-the-top with guns being discharged and fists and feet flying.

Rogen wrote the screenplay with "Superbad" collaborator Evan Goldberg and says they aimed to create characters so stupid and lost that only the threat of being murdered would make them realize they need to get their act together.

But the reason movies associated with Apatow (he's a producer here) work is because there's an underlying sweetness to the characters, as in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" or "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

That's true for Saul, and the movie is at its best when he and Dale move from dealer-customer to possible pals, at its worst when Dale has any encounter with his girlfriend or family, or when the violence features Franco and Perez in hand-to-hand combat.

"Pineapple Express" is also too long, but Franco should let his hair down more often and have a little fun because the audience will, too.