Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) sought out their personal Mecca, White Castle, in 2004. That quest was fresh, funny, endearing, clever and fun. Our loveable potheads are back in "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" but the results are the polar opposite of the original.
Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote both films and this time around they take the directing reins. But the problem doesn't seem to be in the directing. The writing is unbelievably awful. Everything feels forced. Nothing flows here in the slightest. It is easy to picture the writers laying it all out beforehand, saying things to each other like, "Hey it would be really cool if we put them in this situation. Wouldn't that be funny?" The problem is that if you didn't know that this was supposed to be a comedy it would be awfully hard to figure out by watching the movie. I didn't laugh. Not even once. The best I could muster was a smile and almost a chuckle or two when Neil Patrick Harris was on screen, reprising his role as himself from the first Harold and Kumar adventure.
The story is bizarre, to put it mildly. It starts right after the finish of the previous movie. The boys are off to Amsterdam, partly to smoke pot and partly to track down Harold's unrequited love. Kumar cannot wait to get high in Amsterdam and begins to party on the plane. Passengers mistake his bong for a bomb which is reinforced by Kumar repeating the word 'bong' and the passengers hearing the word 'bomb'. Very weak. Because of this they are deemed terrorists by a cardboard character government official who truly has the IQ of a third grader that has been left back three times. I understand that this is supposed to be comedy but watching this is cringingly uncomfortable and not the least bit humorous.
The boys escape and the manhunt is on with the third grader leading the pursuit. By now, I'm wondering when this travesty will be drawing to a close. How it ends does not concern me. I just need it to end. The low point, and that is really saying something, comes when they meet George W. Bush and hang with him, smoking joints and pondering the inane things people do when they get high. Looking at Cho and Penn in this scene I could only feel sorry for them. They are trapped in an amazingly bad film. Then it dawned on me that they are being paid a good salary for their participation while I am paying to watch them. The joke was on me. There will be no need for any of you to have to perform an escape from the theater if you are wise and never enter.
What did you think?
Movie title
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
Release year
2008
MPAA Rating
R
Our rating
Summary
Harold and Kumar are back but it is the viewing audience that will be plotting their escape while watching this unfunny drivel.
