Despite their chronic condition, Cheech and Chong weren't exactly aiming high; they were midnight movie fare for people who were halfway to a laugh before the joke. While "Pineapple Express” owes a deep debt to their movies, it earns its laughs fair and square. Clear-eyed and tack-sharp audiences with a taste for the willfully stupid should enjoy it as much as sedated ones.

Dale Denton ( Seth Rogen ) is a perpet...