• Wide Release
• Director: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
• Written by: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
• Running Time: 102 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: R - Restricted
• Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Jack Conley, Neil Patrick Harris, Roger Bart, Danneel Harris, Eric Winter, Paula Garcés, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, Jon Reep, Beverly D'Angelo, Missi Pyle, Echo Valley, Mark Munoz, Ava Santana, James Adomian, Ed Helms, Courtney Shay Young, Chantel Silvain, Crystal Mantecon, Todd Voltz, Katheryn Ryce, Clyde Stanky, Jackson Beals, Amir Talai, Kristen de Nes, Mark Turner, Randal Reeder, Errol Sitahal, Clyde Kusatsu, Mary Deese, Juli Erickson, Kelvin Payton, Ron Fagan, Frank Mondaruli, D'Anthony Palms, Mighty Rasta, Hugo Perez, Colton Gramm, Patrick Michael Carney, Jason Konopisos, Chris Warner, Carsten H.W. Lorenz, Angus Sutherland, Marisa Belinda, Claudia Pena, Rob Andrist Plourde, Jeremy Ambler, Michael Dean Baker, Michael Byrnes, Brooke Devenney, Ted Ferguson, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Josh Heald, Walt Hollis, Jon Hurwitz, Jimmy Lee Jr., Krystal Mayo, Cindy McBride, Steven Miramontz, Fabian C. Moreno, Alec Rayme, Chris Reid, Colvin Roberson, Hayden Schlossberg, Charity Schubert, Chuck Vail, Greg Sproles, Bill Stinchcomb, Odessa Sykes, Anand Vadehra

There was something so familiar and simple about the first “Harold and Kumar” movie, which might help explain some of the success the film found on DVD. I mean who hasn’t piled into a car late at night and headed off down the highway in search of thrills, or a burger, or what have you? For perpetual potheads Harold and Kumar, it was a desire to eat White Castle sliders at all costs. In the film, as in real life, the experiences incurred during these said road trips were often fodder for future, laughter-filled conversation amongst friends. I mean seriously, who couldn’t relate to Harold and Kumar? It was that simplicity, that relation to these two likeable goofballs, their friendship and their dilemma that forced potheads and non-potheads alike to take notice. It’s as if the audience had hopped in the car with them, an invisible third party taking up space in the backseat, anxiously awaiting each and every escapade, laughing at the crude jokes (the same crude jokes you probably told your friends), all the while salivating at the thought of some metaphorical burger being dumped down your gullet. You weren't just laughing at the joke, you were in on it. Sadly, the same can’t be said about its follow-up “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”, a silly buzzkill of a movie that strains to get even one genuine laugh. Uh, what a mess this is.

Starting off where its predecessor ended, Harold and Kumar are mere hours away from their planned flight to Amsterdam; Harold is off to get the girl of his dreams, Maria (Paula Garcés), something he later surmises seems a bit like stalking, while Kumar has own reason for going, namely the country’s non-existent marijuana laws. While in the airport, the duo not only get into a spat with a security guard, who Kumar deems a racist, they also run into an old friend from school, Vanessa (Danneel Harris). She’s with her fiancé, Colton (Eric Winter), a political big wheel with ties to the White House. To Kumar’s surprise, the couple are en route to Texas for their marriage. It’s a surprise only because Kumar and Vanessa once dated and Kumar has yet to fully get over her. It’s a situation made worse when you factor in that it was Kumar who ended the relationship.

Stupidity intervenes at this point, joining Harold and Kumar as they huddle together in the airplane’s lavatory, in a scene that is nothing less than a total and obvious plot device. Quick to show off his homemade smokeless bong, Kumar quickly incurs the wrath of terrified passengers and a few burly air marshals, who, over the sound of the jet engine mistake the word ‘bong’ for ‘bomb’. Heck, it even looks like a bomb. Eh, what can you do? Once on the ground, a bug-eyed Homeland Security official, Ron Fox (Rob Codry), thanks to some good old racial profiling, deduces that North Korea and al-Qaeda are working together and quickly has the duo deposited at Guantanamo Bay -- a place where, seemingly, sexual humiliation is not only a rumour, it’s on the dang menu. Mere minutes after having arrived at Guantanamo, Harold and Kumar make their much-ballyhooed escape, nearly tripping over the homophobia-fuelled plot device on the way out. Conveniently, they also just happen to stumble upon a crew of Cubans as they are departing in their crude boat for America. Once back, the two determine that they must get to Texas in hopes that Colton can use his governmental sway to right their legal woes. Before that however they have to make a quick pit stop at their friend Raza’s (Amir Talai), whose bottomless party and offer of a loaner car, is just the kick-start the boys need for the mother-of-all-road-trip adventures they are to endure.

With the hawkish Fox hot on their tail, the boys snake through the deep South attempting to keep a low profile while forgetting the fact that the car they’re driving is gawky yellow and that they are dressed like Cuban mobsters. In keeping with the brand, misfortune and goofiness follow the pair as they run afoul some hard-partying KKK members as well as a group of good samaritan black guys playing basketball, whom Harold and Kumar are only too happy to racially profile. Maybe due to some creative dearth or whatever, the filmmakers elect to recycle some comedic situations from the first film including having Harold and Kumar being invited into the home of a yet another big-hearted redneck and his equally endearing wife -- setting up a bizarre situation this time that is content to play pong with the whole inbred redneck stereotype, reinforcing and then tearing it down again.

Also, like in the last film, salvation comes in the form of a horny, shroom-tripping Neil Patrick Harris, who whisks the boys up off the side of the road in the middle of the night. The Zen-like Harris is a welcome diversion; swilling Jack Daniels, hallucinating unicorns, and spewing tales of lost love, all of which helps Kumar to gain some momentary perspective about where his life is headed, and what he's passed up along the way. After which an emasculated and wimpy Kumar can only gush and weep on a couple of prostitutes he’s set up with, after Harris makes a detour to a brothel. I won't even describe his fate, only noting that it works to heighten the buzzkill tenfold. When the boys eventually crash in on the commander-in-chief (James Adomian), who’s in the middle of trying to evade Cheney, you know things are off the rails. “I hate that guy,” Bush says before scooting the boys into a private room, where the trio spend a few minutes blazing up, spinning some warm and fuzzy tales, and missing all kinds of comic possibilities. Stimulated by the herb, Bush reveals that he’s got some daddy issues of his own to work out, something Kumar can easily relate to.

Buried underneath the drug induced, sex raging frat-boy boisterousness are some very bold swipes at the post-9/11 American zeitgeist, including governmental agencies headed up complete ‘the-lights-are-on-but-nobody’s-home’ leaders (like the one Corddry imbues), big brother intrusiveness (the scene where a law abiding citizen questions why the NSA has been tapping their phone for over a year), the racially motivated paranoia (the old lady who envisions Kumar as a crazed terrorist) and, lastly, that American’s constitutional rights are slowly being curtailed by zealot officials (a Homeland Security official wipes his backside with the Bill of Rights, literally); the points are made, but the jabs barely connect. Since everything is portrayed as over the top or absurd, it basically deadens the satirical punch line of said point. Okay, the Bill of Rights ass-wiping bit was golden, I'll give them that. The racial humour, which was but a minor subtext in the first film, is definitely handled with more vigour this time around. However, scenes involving Cordry attempting to persuade a black dentist to talk with a can of grape soda, or using pennies to entice a couple of Jewish Americans to rat out their friends, are so lame that it barely qualifies as sardonic comedy. Even the two protagonists fall victim to this form of racism, with the joke flipping around on, not them, but the audience who were probably feeling the same vibe as Harold and Kumar even if they won’t readily admit it. That’s what we’re dealing with here, folks.

Both Kal Penn (2004's "Homeland Security") and John Cho (2001's "Earth vs The Spider") are good in the lead roles, but their chemistry, as well as their age, is a bit off this time around. So much of that buddy-buddy sweetness we loved the first time around is lost due to the fact that they spend so much time arguing and beating up on each other. The Kal Penn love story with Danneel Harris (2008's "Extreme Movie") barely registers, minus a couple of cutesy flashback scenes and heartbreaking poem spoken by Penn during a rather ludicrous and tidy wrap-up. Seeing Krumholtz and Eddie Kaye Thomas reprising their roles from the first film was also a lot of fun, even if the scene itself was rather silly. Neil Patrick Harris (1997's "Starship Troopers") was also a delight. Man, this unpredictable, maverick character he has in this franchise is so grandiose that he almost deserves a film to call his own. Now that would be a road trip I'd like to be on.

The film’s major stand-out is obviously Rob Corddry (2004's "Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story"), who’s wild-eyed smart aleck jerk character was made famous on "The Daily Show' translates well here as the clueless, racist who somehow has been placed in charge of a major governmental agency, an agency that supposed to protect Americans.

In the end, this film was not nearly as much fun as the first film and I can honestly say that I will not put this on my watch list.