Harold & Kumar

With the title "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", how can one not see this movie? Well, one could, and would be missing a very funny movie. H&R is genius creative marketing, and the director Danny Leiner's movie is actually funnier than it's trailer. The movie demographic is probably from 15 to 25-- totally not mine. Written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the story is more hit than miss, with inspired moments and a drugged out cool. Consequently, the humor can be gross out bathroom humor. However, "Harold & Kumar" can be clever funny, and has moments of comic genius. In the beginning, Kumar(Kal Penn) is having a medical school interview, and the dean (a classically clueless Fred Ward) asks him why he isn't already in school with his perfect MCAT scores. Kumar says, "Just because you're hung like moose, doesn't mean you have to do porn." I was rolling. John Cho and Kal Penn as Harold and Kumar have a natural chemistry and are completely charming. Cho and Penn overcome much of the movie's inconsistencies.

Harold (Cho) is the straight Korean guy who works as an associate at an investment bank. Kumar is the free spirited Indian guy, who interviews with medical schools, but never accepts. That way his father keeps supporting him. It's Friday, and one of the partners at Harold's firm dumps a report on Harold, so that he can party with some babes-- unbeknown-st to Harold. The report is due on Saturday. Harold is not having a particularly stellar day.

Kumar wants to smoke pot with his bud, regardless of Harold's deadline. Back at their apartment complex, we meet Maria (a gorgeous Paula Garces), the object of Harold's affection. Harold is in love with her, but has yet to utter a complete sentence to her in their daily elevator rides. So Harold and Kumar smoke weed and watch TV. Then they get the munchies, and thus begins their quest for White Castle-- somewhere in New Jersey.

Give props to Leiner, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg for ignoring political correctness and having fun with stereotypes. Even in this simplistic comedy, this frames the story as the Harold and Kumar evolve-- after the high subsides. The scenes where Harold is giving career advice at a college Asian club meeting or where Kumar is talking with his father and older brother who are both doctors at the hospital are funny, and have an air of authenticity. Also the story plays off the fact that our duo are perceived geeks and are targets of the Extreme Sports Punks.

"Harold and Kumar" has some of the funniest scenes that sometimes blur lines of taste. Regardless, it's funny. In their quest for White Castle burgers and... getting laid, they end up at the home of mechanic Freakshow (an unrecognizable Chris Meloni). The "threesome" encounter with Lianne (the stunning Malin Akerman), Freakshow's wife, is hot and hilarious-- more than the trailer tease which is good. Perhaps, H&K's defining moment is when the high duo ride a cheetah through the woods. You have to see the movie for this. Neil Patrick Harris as himself is awesome. H&K pick the Harris on the road on the way to White Castle. Amazingly, his character is integral to the plot-- really. Harris is having fun playing against his own casting stereotype, and doing it well. He is totally out there.

You can figure out how this all ends. "Harold and Kumar" is not a cinematic masterpiece, but it is a lot of fun. John Cho is a talented reactive actor, some of his expression are priceless. Kal Penn is a great smart guy rebel, and a good actor. The two together are a solid comic team. I would see, for example "Harold and Kumar Go to Disneyland".

When my best friend said that she was going to go see this movie, I said I wanted to come, not even knowing what the movie was about, but just so I could have a good time (and because I love White Castle). I'm so glad I saw it. I can honestly say that I have never laughed so hard in a theatre before. This is by far the funniest movie I have ever seen. I love it!! Too good!!! I will definitely go to see it again! I'm telling everyone I know what a great movie it is! Sure, there are a lot of people that are going to say it looks stupid and it's for teens. But seriously, people go to see movies to have a good time, and this movie certainly delivers. If only those Oscar morons would start nominating good stuff, I can say that this has a great chance to win.

I can guarantee I'll be buying it the day it comes out on DVD!

Yes this film is rude, crude, over the top, full of choppy editing (probably to ensure an R not NC-17)and sometimes cliché', but it works. Yes there is plenty of Drug Humor and sex humor, but the funniest stuff is actually the on going humor involved with racial inequality and characters who learn how to break those typifications because of their symbolic journey to White Castle. This film pushes the line between being too crude and sometimes too smart for it's own good. The Acting is Right on from the 2 leads and there are quite a bit of funny cameos.

This film is similar to the American Pie films, but substitute the cutesy wootesy sub plots and messages with a realistic and brash message about race and class equality and beating the typifications we in life get tagged with constantly.

The film has plenty of raunchy humor which acts as a great balance to the theme. It does dabble with some stereotypes but the times the stereotpyes are broken especially from Kumar who brings a light fun and jovial spirit to the film and has some of the funniest moments.

At times the editing is so bad, especially when Kumar is peeing by the bush.

The editing ruins a perfectly cast cameo which gets wasted it just ends up making no sense because of obvious excessive cuts.

But overall I found it very very funny, and I did not leave feeling stupid like I did after the funny yet inherently stupid Dodgeball, but left thinking about these social and racial issues. Overall, I left a funny satire with some strong points and ideas that sometimes get overshot but still resonate . . . . a little anyway. Still funny as hell though even if you miss the hidden almost subliminal message within the film.

If two chicks sitting in stalls playing 'Battleshits' while the two Indian and Asian 'heroes' hide between them suffering the sounds and smells of scatological low humor sounds funny to you, then you should consider seeing 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.' My last stoner movie, the remake of 'Starsky and Hutch,' was indeed Sunday school by contrast.

Director Danny Leiner ('Dude, Where's My Car?') has taken this genre and made a classic, not just because it exploits every possible ethnic stereotype with zeal equaled only by 'Bad Santa's' decimating the Christmas formula. 'Castle' has such fun imitating the roguish good will of the Hope/Crosby road pictures while commenting on the egregious weaknesses of parents and police that almost anyone who doesn't mind a breast or two bared in the name of satire can laugh heartily at modern adult pretensions and youthful indiscretion.

Harold and Kumar are trying to find an all-night White Castle after experiencing the sudden yearning that afflicts almost anyone who has had a 'slider' burger. Like that little square of fat and calories, the pot and girls are just too good not to indulge now and then. The two early twenties students, one a serious stock analyst and the other a lazy pre-med genius, are like Hope and Crosby in their witty repartee and canny ability to escape harm. Being delivered from the wrath of seriously deformed 'Freak Show' and his siren wife doesn't deter them from considering the affections of the battling babes or idolizing Neil Patrick Harris in a cameo playing himself as a lethal womanizer.

More serious is the multicultural subtext about stereotyping (Asians are nerdy number crunchers and Indians are overachieving medical doctors, for instance) overturned by, for instance, morphing a seemingly 'Joy Luck' club gathering into a raunchy party or exposing a gang of mouthy skinheads as 'girliemen.' It's all pop-cult fun at our own expense, something akin to actually enjoying the articles in 'Playboy' even if they weren't our reason for buying the mags.

My grandson Cody and I bonded once again, this time just laughing at the silliness, enjoying the satire, and figuring how we could get his dad to allow his young brother to see it, despite the lurid spots that give spice and lend naughtiness to our increasingly dangerous lives.

If stoner comedy has a place in the satire canon, this is one of the best.

"Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle" is an amusing, hilarious comedy not to be taken too seriously and not to be dismissed as just another silly stoner comedy. Certainly there are plenty of elements which appeal to those dophamine, "good times" movie-goers, yet there are also some classic instances of comedic greatness. Aside from chronicling two inane potheads on a quest to satisfy their appetites, "White Castle" offers a great coming-of-age and funny coincidence premise, which reminds us of the heavy, sadistic curveballs life hurls at us, sometimes when we merely desire something simple and cannot attain it. Here is a story of a simple goal by two simple minds: to find a White Castle hamburger joint and fulfill the lasting effects of "the munchies". Yet, as these two stoner friends come to realize, even the seemingly simplest of goals in life can be impossible to achieve, due to such disturbances as irony, circumstance, error, and misfortune, as they are all encountered in this journey. The comic elements are listless: stoner instinct-gone horribly awry, catastrophic error, not-so-pleasant raunchy surprise, near-death escapes in the most unlikeliest of ways, and the eventual finesse of overcoming all obstacles to finally enjoy a binge at a hamburger joint. This is a fresh, original, and satisfying comedy, and though it is nothing of a brilliant production or a cinematic masterpiece, there are plenty of the elements here which constitute for a barrel of laughs and a genuinely entertaining experience at the movies. ***1/2 out of ****