Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
September 23rd 2008 22:26
When writing the script for the sequel to 2004's "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle", directors/writers Jon Hurwitz and Hay Schlossberg must have made a decided effort to lower the standards of taste.
To this end, they succeeded wildly, cramming in more penile and bathroom humour into one movie than we've ever seen before. Some of you must be nodding in anticipation, gleefully rubbing your hands together. Others know to stay away from this movie.
I can't, in good faith, recommend this movie to anyone, as it's so poorly written that it'd be better off as a series of YouTube vignettes, rather than a tedious movie to sit through. Harold and Kumar, the American heroes of the first movie, who happen to be cruelly saddled with the fact that they are of Korean and Indian descent, race to Amsterdam to chase Harold's girl, Maria.
They never get there, as they're mistaken for North Korean and Al-Queda terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
You know this much already, I imagine, from the title of the movie. The trailer will fill you in on the rest.
After that, there's no need for a review, is there? The movie should be universally condemned as awful, right?
Nevertheless, I laughed throughout the film, even snorting into my mug of warm milk at one point. Is it just me?
No, in fact, quite a few of Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critics" gave this movie a tenuous thumbs-up, noting that it's a poorly made film, but still finding themselves guffawing in a raucous audience.
David Denby in the esteemed New Yorker writes:
"The heroes themselves couldn’t be more American if they had been hatched in a Campbell’s soup can...They are Abbott & Costello with dirty mouths—indomitable, ungovernable, and possibly immortal."
Denby notes the crucial element of the popularity of the movie - not the gross-out humour or the stunning array of finely toned women wearing no bottoms - but the relationship between Harold and Kumar, a reinvigorated Odd Couple, another comedy team.
It's nothing new in terms of comedy, but the one thing that I've always praised about Harold and Kumar is that, finally, we get movie heroes that are not good-looking white men. Instead, we get visible minorities, confused as to their role in American life. As far as they know, they're Americans, which is why it hurts to be on the receiving end of racism, walked all over.
"Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" delivers this theme bluntly, like cutting hard bread with a hammer, and then whizzes off to make more jokes about the penis and going to the bathroom. Sadly, this could have been a powerful element in the Harold and Kumar movies, of which there will be a third, apparently.
Still, I have to admire the film for it's increasingly accurate depiction of the lives of ethnic Americans: the struggle to be accepted, and the unquenchable lust for the white woman.
Finally, I have to admit that I enjoyed the cheesy, predictable ending, which let me, vicariously, live out my own lust for white women, showing us, even teaching us, that being a visible minority doesn't exclude you from finding happiness with a beautiful woman. It's with some element of sorrow that I realize that we have to find this seemingly obvious point in the gutter of a stoner buddy movie.
I say: You already know if you're going to watch this, but all I can do is warn you that this strikes for gross-out territory.
See it for: A common complaint about raunchy comedies is that their misogynistic, and this one almost takes the same track. It's saved, I think, by one scene, where we see a flashback to Kumar's pre-stoner days. He was introduced to the herb by an intelligent, vivacious white girl, and she seduces him in the library. Temptress!
*this image is from Popcorn, Soda
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Comment by Nomad
Awesome Food
NPH for life!!!
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
The theme is crying out for a comedy to be made.
Coneheads some years back did a good satire on the US illegal immigration policies.
Now if this is the best of what comedy has to offer then they have killed it for a the next few years.
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Damo, this movie would have had a lot of potential if the writers had the ability to tell a story without resorting to vulgarity...
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
The second movie just came out recently in Australia, I believe, so you'll have to wait before it hits foxtel, right?
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
I watched this movie and laughed throughout the whole thing. Okay so I laugh at fart jokes too!
Mis