I was speaking to Judd Apatow an hour ago with four or five other web guys after the Walk Hard presentation at Sony, and one of them told Apatow he’d seen Pineapple Express (Sony, 8.8.08) , the David Gordon Green-directed comedy about a stoner (Seth Rogen) and his dealer (James Franco) forced to go on the run from the police after they see a cop shoot a guy for the wrong reasons. And the big revelation, he said, is Franco’s hilarious performance.

Playing a character named “Saul” who, Apatow said, is somewhat like Brad Pitt‘s “Floyd” in True Romance, Franco is incredibly funny in the film. The web guy seemed to think It’ll put him right back on the map, probably the best thing he’s ever done, etc. Or certainly the best thing since the James Dean film six years ago. One of those surprise performances from a guy you thought you knew that make you go “holy shit!”