Harold & Kumar
Escape From Guantanamo Bay
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Directed by: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Starring:
John Cho - Harold Lee
Kal Penn - Kumar Patel
Rob Corddry - Ron Fox
Roger Bart - Dr. Beecher
Danneel Harris - Vanessa
Eric Winter - Colton
Neil Patrick Harris - Neil Patrick Harris
The path of the second Harold & Kumar film is now complete. When I first saw Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle back in 2004, it was clear that the film would find its audience on DVD and thus lead to a sequel. It became a hit among the stoner/college undergrad community and so four years later, we finally have the sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. While I was a fan of the first film, I had great apprehensions about the sequel. It's title seemed to go for an easy joke based on our current times and that made me wonder if the film would go for humor with a five-minute shelf-life. The trailers made it look like they were either coasting on the jokes that hit in the first and the new jokes didn't seem to hit at all. I crossed my fingers, took a deep breath, held it…held it…held it…and exhaled a sigh of relief when I found that Escape From Guantanamo Bay was just as hilarious as the first film.
Picking up right where the first film left off, our two stoner heroes Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are on their way to Amsterdam to surprise Harold's newfound love Maria (Paula Garces) but because Kumar simply has to try out his smokeless bong on the airplane, a series of mishaps lands them in Guantanamo Bay as terrorists…for about five minutes before they're able to escape and then have to find and old friend who can possibly use his government connections to clear their stupid but innocent names.
Fans of the first film will not be disappointed. While there are a few nods to the first film, the sequel is about 95% fresh material and almost all of it connects. Gross-out humor ultimately wins the day throughout the film but I think the movie's secret weapon is actually John Cho. His unique delivery and unexpected comic timing is able to turn even the most mundane of lines into the stuff that will be quoted long after you've exhausted all the film's major punchlines. That being said, there are plenty of punchlines to exhaust and I was repeating them all as I exited the theatre.
If they can keep turning in this quality of work, then I hope we won’t have to wait another four years for the duo’s next misadventure.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
4.30.08