Not more than a year ago I worked at a small mom and pop video store. Being that we were small and not corporate we really had no customers. However, despite our lack of visitors, we always worked in pairs of two. I assume that this was to keep us from stealing but it actually lead to working as a team. Still, when we weren’t slightly ripping off mom and pop (go netflix!) we’d discuss films (yes working at a video store is actually surprisingly a lot like the movie Clerks).
One day I was defending the right of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle with the biggest movie snob at the store. He referred to the film as “just another stoner comedy that is a little more than mediocreâ€. I began to discuss with him how the movie is clearly a satire on the way racism still exists in our every day society. This is when Kevin the Movie snob told me I was “reading into the movie way too muchâ€.
Four years later here comes the long awaited sequel Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and if the first one didn’t make you see the satire, this time they make it too obvious. The question I’ve heard the most is “Do you need to see the first one to like this?†and the answer is “yes, yes you doâ€.
The film begins right where the last one ended. Harold and Kumar are packing and getting prepared for their trip to Amsterdam so that Harold can see his new girlfriend Maria. They get to the airport and Kumar runs into his long lost love and her fiancé. As soon as they arrive at the airport the true message behind this movie begins (take that shit, Kevin, you snobby ass fuck). Before the plane takes off Kumar is viewed as a Taliban member in the eyes of an older woman. At this point she keeps her fear quiet but once Kumar’s homemade bong is mistaken for a chemical bomb the movie really begins.
If you haven’t seen the original movie, you should stop reading this review and go rent, buy, get a job at a video store or steal it. If you have seen it and you enjoyed it I’m sure you know that the movie was designed to be very random and strange. I was worried that this sequel was going to be literally them trying to escape from Guantanamo Bay. And while Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor made for an entertaining 90 minutes on the jailbreak plot; John Cho and Kal Penn aren’t Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Thankfully they’re in Guantanamo Bay for all of five minutes and then they are off trying to clear their names while a crazy Government agent (played by Rob Cordry) is trying to make them an example of America’s war on Terrorism.
Once again Neil Patrick Harris returns and once again he steals the movie. In the four years between the original and this sequel Harris came out of the closet. This makes his character all the more entertaining (with all the snorting coke off of stripper’s nipples and fucking random hookers) because it’s even more obvious that he’s not playing himself as much as a parody of every child star gone wrong (a Corey milkshake if you will).
So is the movie any good? That’s a tough question to answer. It’s funny. It’s got an interesting underlying message. You will be entertained. But in the end you just won’t feel fulfilled. It seems like the last five minutes could have gone just a little longer to bring more of a closure. Does this mean I want another Harold and Kumar movie? I’m not sure. My instinct is to say no. However, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Scholossberg have both created such likeable characters (with the help of Kal Penn and John Cho’s charisma and chemistry) that you do want to see more of them.
Are Harold and Kumar America’s new Wayne and Garth, Bill and Ted or Jay and Silent Bob (you forgot Beavis and Butthead –Ed.)? No, they are not. Both of these characters, while being stoners, are very intelligent people who have good hearts and basically just want to be treated as equals. The movie is constantly pointing out American’s racism and even has a political agenda, which is never pushed to its full potentional.
The problem is that the film is always quickly closing the door on its own satire in lieu of gross out jokes and potty humor. This is the first film I’ve ever thought to myself “What exactly does a film need to do to get an NC-17?†Within the first 20 minutes you see Kumar climax on his own face, see a very tiny penis hidden in a rainforest of pubic hair and more Vagina then a skinamax late night soft-core porno. Don’t get me wrong. It’s all funny and entertaining. But at the same time this takes away from the interesting message the film tries to send.