Harold and Kumar Dodge Homeland Security and Delight Audiences in New Gross-Out Comedy

Courtesy of New Line Cinema

Quest completed, satiated with greasy sliders and fries, best friends Harold and Kumar return home, and hastily begin packing for a journey to Amsterdam. No rest for the raunchy.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay picks up mere minutes after the conclusion of its predecessor, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, the epic journey of stoners who crave burgers. The opening scene reestablishes the unique dynamic—Harold (John Cho), a dapper Korean investment banker, is taking a long, soothing shower, when Kumar (Kal Penn), a brilliant but unmotivated Indian med-school dropout, barges in and drops a big, greasy, White Castle dump. Things quickly get cruder from here.

Much of the humor is pure college one-upmanship. Where the average movie would settle for backside nudity, Harold & Kumar goes full frontal. Many movies depict characters being kicked in the balls, but in Harold & Kumar, they don’t just bend over in pain—they fart for good measure. Since the sequel revolves around Guantanamo Bay, the War on Terror, and other assorted political themes, why not include a toke-up session with George W. Bush (played by James Adomian, reprising a role he’s played many times on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson)?

Some have said this light treatment of heavy themes trivializes the experience of prisoners who have suffered for years in secret military prison. “If you go in expecting something political, you’ll be sorely disappointed,” said Kal Penn in a roundtable interview. “It’s satire.” When Kumar sabotages his and Harold’s trip to Amsterdam by bringing a self-engineered “smokeless bong” on the plane and a fearful passenger sees it and mistakes it for a bomb, the unhappy duo earn a non-stop ticket to Guantanamo, thanks in large part to their non-white ethnicity. But their internment in and escape from the infamous prison is only a few short minutes, a perfunctory plot excuse that allows the duo to have the kind of picaresque road trip that made the original film so lovable.

The pair heads from Miami (where they wash ashore with some illegal Cuban immigrants) to Texas (where a WASP acquaintance from college with connections to the Bush family will be able to help clear their names). Hot on their trail is Ron Fox (Rob Corddry), a demented Homeland Security agent who gives the filmmakers an opportunity to mock all sorts of racial stereotypes. Fox tries to pry information by offering $6 in change to Jews and grape soda to blacks. Seething with Fox (notice the last name?) News jingoism, this bellicose “patriot” sees the chance to nab Harold and Kumar as the ultimate wet dream. “Al-Qaeda and North Korea working together!” he squeals.

And if all this wasn’t enough, there’s a love story. The WASP acquaintance is engaged to the college girlfriend Kumar hasn’t gotten over, and so the journey to Texas becomes an attempt to break up their marriage. Obviously, Kumar has much more to offer the girl than the WASP acquaintance. Care to guess who gets the girl?

As a stoner movie Holy Grail, I have to say that mini-hamburgers are more inspiring than a cute girl. But, as in all good quests, it’s the journey that counts, not the end result. And in Guantanamo Bay, the journey is just about as funny as it was the first time around. Decked out in bright polyester suits and shades obtained at a “bottomless” party, bounding across the Dirty South with Neil Patrick Harris—the same womanizing, drug-scarfing version of himself he played in White Castle—Harold & Kumar 2 delivers lovable chemistry, a little political commentary, and, most importantly, large, consistent laughs.