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Movie Review - Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
A Bad Batch of Pot Brownies
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
7:00 pm Apr 27 - by Scott Frankel – Buzz Writer
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Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
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MPAA Rating: RCurrent Showtimes: No showtimes available
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The end to the magical run that was the first movie is now official. Continuing where its White Castle predecessor left off, this sequel deflates every minority joke, fantastical adventure, and Neil Patrick Harris sequence that made the first film such a surprise hit. It stepped on the deadly trap that looms in the forest of sequels, and it’s a shame that this duo was a joint shy of joining the cult status ranks of Cheech and Chong.
As soon as Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) get on a plane to Amsterdam (to meet Harold’s new love interest), Kumar insists on smoking marijuana out of a “smokeless bong.” A series of events occur and an elderly woman mistakes Kumar for a terrorist with a bomb. The two are then subjected to discrimination by the American government, and find themselves locked in Guantanamo Bay. They quickly escape, sneak back into America, and journey to Texas in order to get their names cleared by a former high-school classmate turned ‘respectable’ politician. This politician, ironically, is also the fiancée of Kumar’s former (and now suddenly current) love interest. The two venture through the south, encountering weird people and awkward situations, in order to regain their freedom.
The most painful and overdone part of the film was its political content. It’s a ‘stoner’ movie, mind you, that for some reason felt the necessity to comment on the corruption of our government and the stereotypical ideas of white America… for all 100 minutes. But it wasn’t smart, or satirical, and it just ended up relying on ethnic and cultural stereotypes to earn laughs. Such humor is a cheap (and offensive) way to engage audiences, but it is inevitable when a sequel lacks an original storyline. America has enough political campaigning and stereotyping as it is right now – we don’t need it additionally from ‘guilty pleasure’ sequels.
Even non-smokers won’t have the attention span to search for Guantanamo Bay’s laughs.
Jeff Brandt (Jeff Brandt) said on Apr. 28, 2008 at 3:31 am:
Ouch. Was hoping the movie would make up for the poor interview I had with Cho & Penn. Sounds like this movie went for the cheapest and easiest pseudo-political laughs possible, kind of like Little Bush. Blech.