Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay Review [2]

Posted by Derek LaShomb on 04.29.2008

It looks like a sequel. It smells like a sequel. It must be a sequel.



Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)
Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry
Directed by John Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg

The writers of the original stoner classic, “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” have teamed up to bring us another installment. This time, our two favorite marijuana enjoying minorities, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are off to Amsterdam in pursuit of Maria, the girl that Harold was smitten with in the previous film. This one picks off right where the original leaves off, so the smoke (pun!) hasn't even been given a chance to clear. Load up your bongs, get your lighters ready, and grab hold of those munchies; Harold and Kumar are back and they're amping everything up to eleven.



First, a few words on the original, just so you can get an idea of my take on this type of film. I generally am a big fan of these types of movies, regardless of my personal disposition on the “activity” that many of the characters engage in in such films. “Half Baked” may be the cream of the crop to many, but 2004's “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” is quintessential entry into the genre of there ever was one. There's a certain formula to a good “stoner” movie that the original hit upon very well. It's irreverent, wacky as hell, it's paced terrificly, AND it features copious amounts of marijuana smoking. As sequels tend to go, everything is cranked up, and like the familiar saying goes, they tend to be bigger, both in scope and budget. We know the sequels got the last three going for it, but does it fill out the formula discussed above? Is it even a competent comedy to begin with? You can exhale and let that hit go now, because we're going to take a look at the film now. I promise.



Harold and Kumar are off to Amsterdam as we join our pot head protagonists. They're still in pursuit of Maria, the hot girl that lives in their apartment building that Harold has fallen for. Unfortunately, Kumar is still “pot” driven and he's also a tad impatient; although they're headed to Amsterdam to enjoy all of the “legal” weed possible, he feels the need to indulge while on the airplane. His tool of choice? A smokeless bong that he invented while Harold was out “wasting” his day working. Nice to see someone being productive. Anyway, long story short, the two get mistaken for terrorists, the bong gets mistaken for a bomb containing poison gas, and the two find themselves dealing with an incredibly inept government employee, played in usual hillarious fashion by Daily Show alumni Rob Corddry. Of course he's too stupid to realize they're just pot heads and not North Korean and Al-Qaeda terrorists. Harold and Kumar are sent to Guantanamo Bay, the most depraved of all prisons. While imprisoned (for a very brief period I, I must add), the two meet up with a pair of terrorists, guards who enjoy oral pleasue, and they even learn the meaning of “cock meat sandwich”. That's about the extent of the “Guantanamo Bay” that's in the movie, because, let's face it, a stoner movie about two potheads in a prison would be quite a failure. They escape rather quickly from the compound, and their wacky journey is on. This time, it's not for burgers...it's for freedom. Wow, that should have been a tag line. :high five: Go self!



Believe it or not, but something feels incredibly forced about this entire picture. Sure, the original wasn't exactly rooted in reality, but it was at least identifiable in some way. I mean, I understand the idea behind making a film about a couple of stoners that venture out for food and smoke copious amounts of herb along the way, running into all kinds of wacky adventures along the way. It's identifiable, and therefore funny {“It's funny because it's true!”), because to a very HIGH individual, venturing out for anything while under the influence DOES indeed feel like a crazy adventure. “Harold & Kumar 2” is quite a different beast in this sense. We're given a concept that not many can identify with, and the situations our two slackers happen upon don't have quite as much comedic weight as a result. Harold and his buddy come upon a hick farmer and his wife who live in an incredibly nice place in the middle of the woods down in Alabama. To the boys surprise, they enjoy marijuana. There's a catch though. They have an inbred cyclops of a son that they keep in the cellar. And there you have the set up to most of the jokes in the film. Playing upon stereotypes and flipping them is a good idea, but it's turned into a running joke here that doesn't always work, and in fact, it wears a little thing towards the end of the movie as we see it used in surplus of three times in a very short span.

I won't come down TOO hard on the material, because there is indeed some funny stuff here. The films about as offensive as they cum...errr...come. I'm getting ahead of myself, here. There's a masturbation sequence complete with a jiz shot, plenty of naked females to go around, a good deal of marijuana smoking, and copious amounts of cursing. Plus, Neal Patrick Harris shows up in another funny cameo that unfortunately doesn't manage to live up to the original. In fact, many of the jokes feel like nothing more then the trumping of an already dead horse. Maybe the four years between the movies jaded me a bit, but the original just seemed to have a much more fun sense of irreverence and there was a certain cleverness beneath all of the stupidity. A lot of jokes just come off flat here, and the film itself has taken on an incredibly lopsided form thanks to a very obvious and painful first act that is nearly devoid of ANY humor at all. It's almost excruciating as there's nearly ten or fifteen minutes where we get nary a single joke as the story and everything is set up so obviously for the audience. I won't even bother nitpicking the obvious parts of the film, because they'll stick out like a sore thumb. Look out for the terrible makeup on “President Bush” in the film thats about as distracting as can be, and look out for the absolutely awful conclusion to the movie.

Regardless of any qualms I have with this one, including the obvious toning down of the marijuana smoking which I'm figuring the studio had a hand in, and the fact that the film doesn't fall very well into that “stoner formula”, there's still a somewhat funny movie in here somewhere. Much like “Leatherheads”, there's great potential here that just isn't capitalized upon. I can however say that Rob Corddry rocks the house in this one, stealing every single scene he's in, but even then, I can't help but wonder how much more he could have pulled out of this movie with a tighter, funnier script and a director that just let him do his thing. Ed Helms shows up for a funny cameo as well. Yeah, he's just like his Office character here and I wouldn't have it any other way. Still, as a fan of “White Castle”, I was left underwhelmed and wanting a bit more. My belly wasn't exactly sore with laughter either. And the decision to focus on the terrible Kal Penn and allow him to carry the film? Ugh. Here's my impression of Kal Penn's acting. :closes eyes halfway: Brilliant, huh? Anyway...

The 411: As a BIG fan of the original, I can honestly say I was very disappointed with this sequel. Sure, there's a few laughs here and there, but on a whole, theres just not enough to warrant the purchase of a ticket. The film might actually be a lot more enjoyable once it hits DVD, as I always am under the belief that certain niche comedies tend to work better in a more intimate setting. Seeing a movie with a theater full of people that don't laugh tends to tilt ones opinion. I'll give it another shot eventually, but as of now, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms and handful of funny moments are the rewarding parts. There's nothing excruciating bad, but nothing I can really strongly recommend either. Very "eh" in my honest opinion.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]