Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (R) ** ½ | An escape comes with reality
Posted on Fri, Apr. 25, 2008
BY CARY DARLING
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
JAIMIE TRUEBLOOD / WARNER BROS.
John Cho and Kal Penn meet terror head-on in their latest adventure.
A lot has changed since Harold and Kumar last partied their way onto the big screen way back in '04, White Castle burgers in hand and sex on their minds.
Issues of politics and race have muscled their way to the cultural center stage, perhaps even outpacing recreational eating as a pastime in this election year. So studious Harold and stoner Kumar get with the spirit of the times in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, the uneven and too-long but occasionally hilarious sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
The new film bounces between the raunchy and the relevant, the profane and the political like Homer Simpson at a bake sale.
The story picks up not longer after the end of White Castle, with investment-banker Harold Lee (John Cho) and med-student friend Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) off to Amsterdam to win the heart of Maria (Paula Garces), the woman on whom Harold was crushing big time in the first film. But the would-be romantic European getaway is hijacked by events, as well as H&K's dorky stupidity.
First there's a confrontation with a TSA inspector in the security line, but that's just the appetizer for the banquet of troubles that greet them once onboard. Suffice it to say, they're hauled off the plane, branded as terrorists and sent to detention at Guantanamo Bay. They flee, first to South Florida, then to Central Texas, in search of help in getting their reputations back.
As with White Castle, much of the humor is about as sophisticated as a college kegger. Within the opening minutes, there's a brief, sex-related sight gag that no doubt will repulse as many viewers as it entertains. Their pal Neil Patrick Harris, once again playing the Bizarro version of himself, returns with an even bigger sexual appetite. And the whole men-in-prison scenario plays out like Oz meets Beavis and Butt-head.
Such moments are cheek-by-jowl with a goofball skewering of racial profiling, the Patriot Act, radical Muslim terrorists and life in general in these panicky times. Like with White Castle, Cho and Penn's mere presence as young, Asian-American guys -- still a rarity in terms of Hollywood leading men -- sets Guantanamo Bay apart from other slob comedies.
Still, for all of its spitwads tossed at today's politics, Guantanamo Bay is surprisingly soft in its treatment of President Bush. Harold and Kumar meet up with Bush in Texas (long story), and the president (played by James Adomian) comes across as a nice guy who's just a bit out of his depth.
Yet for all of its comic anarchy, the movie may actually do something that more sober-minded films such as Lions for Lambs could not: seduce audiences into seeing a movie that's even peripherally about current events. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is not totally an escape from reality.
Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms, Paula Garces
Writer-directors: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Producers: Nathan Kahane, Greg Shapiro
A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Running time: 102 minutes. Sexual content, nudity, strong language, drug use, crude humor. Playing at area theaters.
Join the discussion
The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Not a registered user? It's Free!
Register here. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
