Movie Review Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) 

Directed Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Written by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Neil Patrick Harris

Release Date April 25th, 2008

Published April 25th, 2008

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle was a harmless little stoner comedy with two likable if not all that well known stars. That same description still fits as Harold and Kumar get sequelized in Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. John Cho and Kal Penn are becoming better known and they have a lovable chemistry but saddled with gags that likely will not age well in the years to come, they come up short in Escape from Guantanamo Bay. 

Picking up where the original film left off, Harold and Kumar are just an hour away from boarding a flight to Amsterdam where Harold (John Cho) hopes to win the heart of Maria (Paula Garces). Kumar is supporting his buddy but the opportunity for some legalized weed smoking in the sin capital of Europe holds just as much appeal for him.

Unfortunately for Harold, Kumar cannot wait to get to Amsterdam before he gets high again. Fashioning a device he claims is a smokeless bong, Kumar intends to get high in the airplane bathroom when his bong is glimpsed by another passenger and he is mistaken as a terrorist with a bomb. Coming to his aid, Harold too is called a terrorist and the plane is sent home so our heroes can be arrested.

Confronted by an overzealous homeland security agent (Rob Corddry), Harold and Kumar wind up at the terrorist holding facility at Guantanamo Bay desperate to escape. They hope to reach Texas where a well connected friend might get them out of trouble. That friend happens to be marrying Kumar's ex Vanessa (Daneel Harris) adding some tension to the situation.

That plot gives Harold and Kumar a little motivation. The crux of Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay however is lowbrow gross out humor (two characters get peed on, amongst other gross out gags), a whole lot of drug humor, and some daring if clumsy racial humor. Race played a small but pivotal role in the original film as H & K faced off with a number of racists and stereotypes.

In Escape From Guantanamo Bay the racial component of the story becomes far more prominent. Kumar's skin color gets him pulled out line for extra security checks at the airport. On the plane an old woman is horrified to be on the flight with Kumar, imagining him as a terrorist. Finally, Rob Corddry's Homeland Security agent engages in every imaginable stereotype as he investigates Harold and Kumar's escape.

Equal opportunity offenders, Harold and Kumar themselves judge books by their cover especially in a detour through Alabama and an encounter with a backwoods resident with a number of surprises in store. As I said, the racial humor of Harold and Kumar is clumsy at best. It has the wit of one of those drunken college parties meant to protest political correctness but is really just mildly racist.

Most damaging however is that Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is not nearly as funny as it thinks it is. Many scenes show Harold and Kumar and their supporting cast delighting in their antics to a degree of joy and humor well beyond anything the audience is feeling. I'm glad they had a good time, I just wish I had had a better time watching.

Movie Review Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) 

Directed by Danny Leiner

Written by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Ryan Reynolds, Anthony Anderson, Malin Akerman

Release Date July 30th, 2004 

Published July 29th, 2004 

I can’t be the only one for whom the words “From the Director of Dude Where’s My Car” are not reassuring. That said, you can’t judge a filmmaker by his only film. Director Danny Leiner deserves a chance to make a second impression. However, when I heard that his Dude follow-up was called Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, I was less than enthusiastic. From the depths of low expectations can spring something amazing and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is amazing for the fact that it doesn’t suck.

Harold and Kumar are your typically mismatched pair of lifelong friends. Harold (John Cho) is a neurotic investment banker who is constantly put upon by his co-workers. Kumar (Kal Penn) has a high IQ and the test scores to go to any med school in the country, but he’d rather live off of his dad’s money and smoke some weed.

Well Harold and Kumar have that in common, they both smoke weed and when a White Castle commercial pops up on television they know exactly where to cure the munchies that accompany smoking the chronic. Kumar thinks he knows where the closest White Castle is but you know this is a buddy comedy road movie so this will not be that easy.

On the way to White Castle, Harold and Kumar encounter a group of skinhead extreme sports guys, a backwoods hick with a taste for group sex, an escaped leopard, racist cops and Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, that Neil Patrick Harris in the best of numerous cameos that also include Jaime Kennedy, Anthony Anderson and an unrecognizable Christopher Meloni as the previously mentioned backwoodsman.

The unique thing about Harold and Kumar is the smart satirical way it treats race. Harold is Korean, Kumar is Indian, but neither is defined by their ethnicity. They face racism at every turn and eventually they fight back in funny anarchic fashion, stealing cars, breaking into and out of prison, riding a leopard (see it for yourself).

Cho and Penn are a pair of terrific comic actors. Great chemistry, timing and charm. These two are really likable and you can’t help but cheer for them every humiliating, degrading step of the way. The few scenes they share with Neil Patrick Harris in a cameo as himself are absolutely hysterical. We have seen this type of career send up before, The Simpsons are famous for tweaking an actor’s past persona for ironic laughs, this time it’s somehow fresh and smart. That is because Harris is so committed and Cho and Penn sell the jokes so well.

Director Danny Leiner still has a way to go before we start praising his technique but this is unquestionably an improvement over Dude Where’s My Car. Of course, ninety minutes of blank screen would be an improvement over that film, but I’m trying to pay the guy a compliment. Harold and Kumar is a stoner comedy with all the stoner comedy beats and expected jokes. It’s juvenile and wades into the muck of gross out humor that genre does best.

Harold and Kumar would be valuable for just providing the rare starring role for a Korean guy and an Indian guy. It transcends that because those guys are actually very funny.