Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Release Date: April 25
Director: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Writers: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Cinematographer: Daryn Okada
Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Roger Bart
Studio/Run Time: Warner Bros, 102 mins.

Whenever a small, independent film gathers festival acclaim and goes on to cult-movie status in the video world, the battle cry of the breathless studio executive is nearly audible from miles away: “I smell a sequel!” And while Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay may not be as disappointing as past films mired in sequel hell (Remember Caddyshack II?), it falls considerably short of its White Castle predecessor.

Starting where the first film left off, the titular slackers catch a plane to Amsterdam but take a detour to Guantanamo Bay after their bong gets mistaken for a bomb and they get arrested as terrorists. Right before being turned into someone’s sex toy, the pair escapes to the mainland. A “road trip” ensues, much like the one that made White Castle so hilarious. Unfortunately, Guantanamo‘s rendition is alternately too familiar (the requisite stop at a house of ill repute, this time with a tired Beverly D’Angelo playing the madam) or too gross (gratuitous masturbation and defecation).

Whereas White Castle had a freshness in its humor, Guantanamo goes crude for the sake of crudeness, to the point of ruining entire scenes. The spirit of the previous film’s humor does surface at times, however, as when Kumar (Kal Penn) feels he is racially profiled at airport security and when actor Neil Patrick Harris returns as a psychotic version of himself. The scene with President Bush sharing premium cannabis with the boys at his ranch does drag on a bit, but brings back some of that earlier irreverence. Still, the best way to enjoy Harold and Kumar is to watch the original—again.