"B ro's before ho's."

The above sentiment, expressed at least once by at least one character in "Pineapple Express," seems to be the mantra of the Judd Apatow-led filmmaking pack. The sophomoric funnymen have three summers-worth of hits under their belts with "The 40 Year Old Virgin," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and last summer's double-feature's worth of crudities - "Knocked Up" and "Superbad."

With "Pineapple Express," premiering Wednesday, Apatow & friends re-enter the summer blockbuster fray with another film riffing on their favorite topics: casual drug use, male quarter-life insecurities and, most importantly, male bonding verging on the homoerotic.

Most of the stock company is here too - Apatow produced and got a story credit, Seth Rogen ("Knocked Up") stars and co-wrote the script with "Superbad" writing partner Evan Goldberg -and Bill Hader ("Saturday Night Live," "Superbad") makes a cameo.

However, despite the presence of so many familiar faces and tropes, "Express" lacks the freshness - and, indeed, much of the humor - of its predecessors, relying on cheap laughs and stoner humor to its detriment. Most of the previous films, in which Apatow had a hand, maintained a certain reflective quality - albeit one laden with vulgarity - about the move from sometimes-arrested adolescence into adulthood, "Express" ditches any degree of thoughtfulness for a tepid, predictable buddy-comedy dynamic.

Dale (Rogen), the film's protagonist, is a usual Apatow-ian slacker: he works serving subpoenas, when he's not smoking weed, listening to talk radio or paying visits to his high school-age girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) at lunchtime. Dale's friend and fellow slacker, Saul (James Franco), is also his drug dealer, a connoisseur of the finest chronic, including the pineapple express.

On one of his serving runs, Dale witnesses a murder. After clumsily fleeing the scene, he runs to Saul's apartment for safety. However, in his escape, Dale leaves behind a crucial piece of evidence: a joint containing the pineapple express, which the murderer - drug kingpin Ted Jones (Gary Cole - archfiend boss Bill Lumbergh from cult hit "Office Space") - instantly traces back to Saul.

Soon, Dale and Saul are on the run, pursued by the wrath of Ted in the form of oddly-codependent hitmen (Craig Robinson and the always-reliable Kevin Corrigan), corrupt cops (the unspeakably-irritating Rosie Perez) and Saul's apoplectic "friend" and drug supplier Red (Danny R. McBride).

From there, the film follows a predictable trajectory, with Saul and Dale repeatedly encountering hostile oddballs and improbably escaping from them. However, the parts where the film drags the most are the periods of downtime in between the wacky situations Dale and Saul find themselves in, which are filled with obligatory "character-building" moments where the two leads discuss their similarities and differences. Moments like this in buddy films such as "Rush Hour" are normally leaden pace-killers, and the same scenes in "Express" are no exception.

As satire, the movie is a bit more successful with elaborate shootouts and car chases. The set pieces in "Express" wouldn't make bad entries in the action genre themselves, were it not for the deliberate sprinkling of comedy. And, not only does the movie sport scenes that could go toe-to-toe with any "straight" actioner, it is not hesitant to follow through on them either: "Pineapple Express" is not afraid to show blood, and boasts a body count James Bond would envy.

However, the moments where "Express" revels in its genre trappings are separated by long stretches of the film's modus operandi - typical "guy" moments leavened by off-kilter (and, in this case, out-of-place) moments of soul-searching.

Most of the humor in Apatow comedies come from an exaggerated sense of awkwardness grounded in the everyday. The situations may be outlandish, but the emotions behind the scenes are relatively relatable.

However, with "Pineapple Express," such character-driven moments are unwelcome additions to a story that is, by necessity, plot-driven. The film is so caught up within the genre, that its attempt to satirize the typical Apatow "man-talk" moments, simply detract from the pacing. Ironically, the funniest moments come during the action sequences, which are filled with hilarious, visual parodies of straighter scenes in other films legitimately obsessed with gun fights and explosions.

With this movie, though, the filmmakers' obsession with immature men getting in touch with their sensitive side eclipses all else, and makes "Express" more like a slow, boring drive to nowhere.