Laurel and Hardy didn’t need to get high to get laughs. Neither did Abbott and Costello or the Marx Brothers. Then along came Cheech and Chong, the pot-loving onscreen team whose brand of comedy involved zany misunderstandings and plenty of weed.

With the release of 1978’s “Up in Smoke,” Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong scored laughs as a pair of stoners-gone-wild. Their success as high-flying morons avoiding jail time spawned similar comic duos like Jay and Silent Bob (“Clerks,” “Dogma”) and Harold and Kumar (“Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”). What a legacy (sarcasm intended).

Another generation of stoner kids is running from the law in “Pineapple Express.” Seth Rogen stars in this flick, which he also wrote with the help of his “Superbad” co-writer, Evan Goldberg.

Rogen, the beastly male lead from “Knocked Up,” once again teamed up with producer Judd Apatow to create a wild, immature comedy. His character is a stoner who witnesses a corrupt cop and a drug lord commit murder. He and his drug-dealer pal, played by James Franco, run from the murderers who figure out their identity when Rogen’s character leaves behind his unique blend of pot (called Pineapple Express) in a nervous, high stupor.

Franco, who is known for his role as Peter Parker’s best friend in the “Spider-Man” movies, is not the kind of guy one would expect to play a long-haired, lazy stoner. Yet he and Rogen make a pretty convincing team of paranoid potheads.

In case this duo’s brain-dead antics aren’t enough to annoy viewers, the casting director threw in a sure-fire irritant: Rosie Perez. The fiery actress, known more for her shrill voice than for actual acting talents, plays the crooked police officer.

While early reviews have been positive, this stoner flick is missing one important ingredient: Neil Patrick Harris (NPH in Hollywood slang), whose formerly geeky persona led to a fan-building comic turn in the Harold and Kumar movies.

Countering that testosterone-driven movie selection is a film aimed at young girls. “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” picks up a few years after the first installment of Ann Brashares’ novel found a big-screen audience. This second film actually represents the series’ fourth book.

Television stars America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Alexis Bledel (“Gilmore Girls”), Blake Lively (“Gossip Girl”) and Amber Tamblyn (“Joan of Arcadia”) reunite for this film, each with a much more impressive level of fame than they had achieved by the release of their 2005 film.

This episode of the girls’ lives finds the friends leaning on each other during their college years, in the midst of turbulent romances and life-changing career moves. Let’s just be honest and call this film out for what it truly is: the Hollywood marketing machine’s evil way of getting girls addicted to chick flicks at an early age.

Movie Buzz is a column by Mariah Gardner. It appears in The Metro Spirit each Wednesday.