by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B Rated R 102 min
This film, shot by co-writers/directors Jon Huritz and Hayden Schlossberg, is aimed at the fans of their first film, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. The original film's theatrical release tanked, but it went ballistic on DVD, becoming a cult classic-thus, justifying the sequel. The story is a continuation of the first scenario picking up immediately after the finale of the first film then developed into a much broader scenario.
For what it is-an in-crowd stoner movie-Huritz and Schlossberg have managed to write a series of funny sequences that are loosely tied together by flawed segues. In other words, the continuity of the story movement is skewed by a poor sense of getting from point A to point B. Still, the skits are laugh producing, sexually explicit, with enough nudity to satisfy the fans.
As one would expect, the two hapless weed-dweebs decide to fly to Amsterdam to hook up with Harold's (John Cho) ex-girlfriend, who he can't get off his mind. Kumar is paranoid at being racially profiled and he has an encounter with an airport inspector. Finally on the plane, Kumar goes to the bathroom to try out his new invention-a smokeless bong. Harold is furious that Kumar (Kal Penn) will blow the whole trip over a few hits off the bong. Sure enough, his bong is mistaken for a bomb, and the two pot-heads are arrested by air marshals.
The honcho of the anti-terrorist team (a jerky numb-skull) truly believes these two stoners are hard core al Qaeda operatives. One thing leads to another, and Harold and Kumar end up in Guantanamo Bay, locked up with real terrorists. The guards are sexual sadists and make the prisoners do unspeakable things to humiliate them but these two are clueless. Luckily, Harold and Kumar unwittingly become part of an escape plan and end up on a Cuban refugee boat to Miami.
Once in Miami, the pair, now fugitives, look up their buddy with connections to a dude that has high level mojo. This begins their road trip to Texas, where Kumar's ex-girlfriend is getting married to the man with the plan. Along the way, they have an encounters with some red neck ingrates with a mutant kid in the basement, stumble into a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning ceremony, but remarkably, they stay stoned-oblivious to the real danger they're in.
Stoner humor alone carried the first film, as the two higher than Mount Everest dudes had a heavy jones for those tasty White Castle burgers and would do anything to get them. Hurwitz and Schlossberg realized that was a limited premise. So, for the sequel they come up with more inventive sequences that satirized racial profiling, overreaction by anti-terrorist buffoons, and the usual clichés of backwater USA with its redneck stereotypes. Funny, when the KKK catches Harold and Kumar (a Korean and Indian) they think they're Mexicans.
How Hurwitz and Schlossberg got this film past the MPAA without an NC-17 rating is a miracle. The shock value of frontal nudity is quickly equalized by the shots of females flashing flesh as poor Harold and Kumar are so stressed by being on the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list, they seek advice from prostitutes in a legal brothel in Reno.
Most of the scenes have references back to the first film, which holds the fans interest. However, there is enough new material to keep the theater alive with laughter. The bottom line: If one is a fan of the first film, one will not be disappointed by the sequel.
Article Published in the May 2008 Issue of EU Jacksonville
|
