Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale in "Snow Angels," Warner Independent Pictures, 2007

In fact, in that same interview with Rose, Green said, "I'm very much against the idea of theatrical, highly scripted films that just seem like the characters memorize their lines and hit their marks." That describes Green's own films as well as it describes Apatow's, who told Variety's Anne Thompson last year that he likes filmmakers "who let something unexpected happen on camera." Though Apatow's stable does have a clearly defined clique within it, this isn't the first time he's drafted a director from the independent film world either. His television series, "Freaks and Geeks" (1999-2000) and "Undeclared" (2000) employed indie filmmakers Mike White, Jay Chandrasekhar, Jake Kasdan, Greg Mottola; the latter two have gone on to direct the Apatow features "Walk Hard" (2007) and "Superbad" (2007), respectively.

Undoubtedly, Green and Apatow have their differences as filmmakers. Place is so specific and so important to all of Green's work while Apatow's movies exist in a kind of United States of Generica, filled with strip malls and suburban streets specifically designed to represent everywhere and anywhere (at least anywhere that's predominantly Caucasian; Green's "George Washington" has more African-American characters than just about all of Apatow's pictures put together). Green is a visual stylist; Apatow wears his ignorance around a film camera like a badge of honor. But they also have plenty of common ground: most of both of their films concern small insular communities of men that are thrown into chaos by women. People in both of their movies rarely hold down jobs. It's even rarer that we actually see them at work and when they do, they don't enjoy it.

Does "Pineapple Express" feel like a David Gordon Green film? Sort of, though it's probably more accurate to call it a Judd Apatow movie filtered through David Gordon Green's sensibilities. Other than McBride as the duplicitous drug dealer Red, the cast -- including Rogen, Franco, Bill Hader, Kevin Corrigan and Gary Cole — are mostly Apatow mainstays, as is the preoccupation with marijuana and the fascination with Jewish action heroes (See also the Apatow-penned "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" and that "Munich" monologue in "Knocked Up"). Still, Rogen and Franco's characters -- process server Dale and pot dealer Saul -- wouldn't look all that out of place in Green's "All the Real Girls." In both cases, we're watching guys who like to sit around and talk a lot about nothing of substance and who have borderline unhealthy attractions to younger women. The sense that these losers may have wandered in from a much more languid movie fits the project's origins as well; according to interviews, Apatow first hatched the story for "Pineapple" after wondering what happened to Brad Pitt's stoner in "True Romance" after the cameras followed the story elsewhere.

Such a public 180° could just be lip service paid to publicize a new movie. But "Pineapple Express" does feel like the work of a genuinely excited fan who's gotten to run with his heroes; sort of a "Last Action Hero," only good. Dale and Saul may feel trapped in the middle of a drug war, but Green relishes every opportunity to up the mayhem. There were bigger and better car flips this summer at the movies (see "The Dark Knight"), but none with more feeling or glee than the one Green stages in his final act.

Every sequence that should be in an action comedy, from the intricate and destructive fistfight to the absurd car chase, is present. Green's twist is to stage everything without the requisite choreography that makes typical genre fare graceful, fluid and exciting, a truly "improvisational" approach to something that is traditionally very theatrical. That bit, seen in most "Pineapple Express" trailers, where Saul gets his leg stuck in the windshield after Dale tells him to kick it out (because "that's what they do") isn't just a funny gag, it simultaneously celebrates and demystifies that classic action hero mystique. It also reminds us just how out of their depth these characters really are. And who would understand that state of mind better than a director who's a bit unsure of himself, too? Like his heroes, Green only knows how to behave in the context of an action film because of what he's seen in other action films.

Will the collaboration continue? Perhaps; it's conceivable that Green could become Apatow's go-to guy for genre deconstruction, though it's equally conceivable that "Pineapple Express" is Green's Hollywood walkabout on the way to career in commercial films totally unlike all the movies he's made before. That may ultimately be Green and Apatow's greatest difference: while the latter continues to systematically carve out a comedic brand, the former's doing his best to completely upset anyone's preconceived notion of what a "David Gordon Green" movie is. Now, his movies aren't just unlike other movies; they're unlike his own as well.

[Additional photo: Franco and Rogen in "Pineapple Express"]

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