CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 4/25/08

A Good Buzz

By david michael wharton

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg (both also directed)

Having finally satisfied their munchies by reaching White Castle in the previous outing, stoner buddies Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are setting out for the pothead paradise of Amsterdam. Their dreams of legal ganja are sidelined, however, when the unfortunate collision of racial profiling and an overzealous, aggressively stupid Homeland Security agent (Rob Corddry) lands the pair (briefly) in Guantanamo Bay. While Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was mostly just an excuse to run the boys through a series of increasingly silly pit stops on their way to the titular franchise, this sequel provides a somewhat less hazy throughline as Harold and Kumar attempt to clear their names, as well as a romantic subplot that sees Kumar trying to stop a former flame from marrying her passive-aggressive, politically ambitious fiancé. Really, though, even these conceits toward structure are mostly an excuse to expand the potential of comic targets, allowing political satire and even the teensiest bit of heart to join the previous film's winning mixture of raunch and absurdity. Escape from Guantanamo Bay sneaks in moments of cultural insight between the gratuitous nudity, cheap shots at stereotypes, and the brilliance that is Neil Patrick Harris' performance as Neil Patrick Harris, but it never lets anything as buzzkill-y as "an agenda" get in the way of its being the smartest stupid comedy it can be.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
New Line Cinema
Rated R; 102 min.

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David Michael Wharton is managing editor of CS Weekly and a contributing editor of Creative Screenwriting Magazine. He has the munchies.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay courtesy New Line Cinema

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