The SmarK DVD Rant for Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Film, Reviews

The SmarK DVD Rant for Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

"You know what the ‘P.H.’ in ‘N.P.H.’ stands for, don’t you?"

"Patrick Harris?"

"No! Common mistake. It actually stands for ‘Poon Handler’."

– Neil Patrick Harris, as Neil Patrick Harris.

If ever there was a movie franchise that knows its audience, it’s Harold & Kumar. Their first outing, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, was a mild critical success and a total theatrical flop, but struck a chord with goofy stoners everywhere on DVD, far exceeding its theatrical total when ported to the small screen. The formula was pretty simple: Two charming, everyman actors get into misadventure on what appears to be a simple trip to a burger joint. The true star of that movie was of course Neil Patrick Harris, playing a hilarious twist on his relatively nice-guy image as a womanizing, car stealing, drug snorting wildman in one of the most memorable cameos in recent cinema history. So the sequel seemed to be easy enough to pull off — just jack up the stakes, add more NPH and vulgarity, and watch the money roll in. Which is exactly what happened.

The Film

Picking up almost from the moment that the first movie ends, Harold & Kumar 2 seems like it’s going for the easy comedy by having them travel to Amsterdam ("The weed capital…of the world!" according to Harold) but Kumar’s inability to wait until they even get off the plane to start smoking up leads to them getting mistaken as terrorists. Common mistake. There’s some truly witty stuff going on here as well, with a sly comment on 9/11 hysteria when Indian-descended Kumar looks like an Arab to other passengers, and "bong" gets misheard by overzealous air marshals as "bomb". This introduces the other crucial piece of the movie, Rob Cordry as an anxious Homeland Security agent, thrust into the situation because the secretary is off ice-fishing. The director says on the extras that the key to the character is that he was told to act as if he was Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, thinking he was the hero of the movie. Of course, in the continuing social commentary of the movie, he also ends up as an ignorant racist ("Zip it, Hello Kitty") which provides for some funny moments but feels a bit heavy-handed after a while. And maybe it’s because I’m Canadian, but I never got why grape soda is somehow closely associated with black culture in the US. Everyone, black and white, loves grape soda up here!

But I digress.

After getting sent to Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay for more poop and rape jokes, they quickly escape and set off on a road movie to break up Kumar’s ex-girlfriend’s wedding to a Republican who (gasp) doesn’t think she should smoke pot! I mean, he does make a good point — it’s illegal and would wreck his political career, which is a pretty selfish act on her part. Maybe I’m the wrong audience to be wowed by the dazzling social commentary, I dunno. The female presence shoe-horned into what is basically a "bro-mance" movie (I mean, does either of the essentially faceless women in the movie have better chemistry than Harold & Kumar do together?) is one of the major downfalls that almost bring it down. Thankfully, they’re confined to flashbacks and dream sequences most of the time (giving us two of the movie’s funniest moments, in the form of college era Harold and a threesome with a giant bag of weed, respectively) so I can’t fault them entirely.

Really though, whatever else is going on in the "plot" ( and I use that term loosely), the entire movie is really one big tease as we wait for the inevitable return of Neil Patrick Harris (it comes just after they escape from the Ku Klux Klan, for those wondering) and suddenly the movie takes off all over again and hits a new level. Harris gets great line after great line ("What do you think, I’ve never smuggled someone through a roadblock before? Watch that blanket, it’s kind of sticky"), hitting it out of the park like Barry Bonds on a good day, but with slightly higher drug intake. Sadly, his glorified cameo comes to an end all too soon, and the movie can’t sustain the momentum from there on its own, leaving it kind of deflated for the last half hour or so. And the happy ending almost goes against the slacker spirit of the movie, giving a shiny resolution to two guys who don’t really deserve the happiness, but that’s a minor complaint.

Really, this movie isn’t one that’s going face criticism for its merits as cinema anyway. It’s a movie that’s intended for stoners and teenage boys to laugh at the pot jokes, fart jokes, gratuitous "bottomless party" scene, racist jokes, Republican-bashing, and the occasional naked boob. All of which it delivers and then some, so I’d call it a success because I still laughed my ass off even on the second viewing, because it’s a movie that’s willing to try pretty much anything to get a laugh and you have to respect that. Yeah, they don’t all hit (Cordry himself is a .350 comedy batting average at the best of times) but at least they keep trying until something does.

Video & Audio

Although it’s about to get sucked up and destroyed by Warner, New Line has always been on the forefront of DVD presentation, and this is no different. A strong DVD transfer, looking almost as good as the high-def versions, with no obvious flaws in the picture that I could detect. Even more impressive is the Dolby 5.1 EX mix, which is "optimized for home theaters", meaning I don’t have to crank up my center channel to hear the dialogue! Hallelujah! That’s a major pet peeve with me and it’s nice to see someone doing something about it on the production end of things. They also take care to mix the music portions down so as not to overwhelm the dialogue, and it’s much appreciated. For power and demoing, it’s not terribly impressive, but full marks for allowing me to enjoy the movie instead of leaping for my remote to adjust the volume every 5 seconds.

Bonus Features

Again, here’s where New Line is the king. For a mid-level release, this sucker is LOADED. You get:

– Two audio commentaries, one from the director/writers and one from the actors, and both are interesting although the second one is so goofy as to be nearly useless.

– The "Dude, Change The Movie" feature which allows you to substitute alternate versions of key scenes at various points in the movie, like switching the "bottomless party" to a "topless party" instead. This is actually a very cool feature and would work wonders with the Apatow movies where there’s hours of alternate takes to work with. For just sitting down and watching the movie, it’s kind of annoying, though.

– A second disc gives you a twenty minute featurette with the directors, actors and the usual talking heads, but there’s some pretty funny stuff in there. Chris Meloni continues to shine as a comedic actor in particular.

– There’s also 27 additional scenes, some of which are just as funny as the movie (mostly the ones with NPH being NPH) and the rest likely would have dragged the movie too far down. I don’t see why "I can assure you, however, that your parking will be validated" didn’t make the cut, though, as it might be the best joke in the movie.

– Plus there’s the three versions of the trailer and the "PSA" from George W. Bush as well.

A stellar collection of stuff.

The Ratings:

The Film: ***1/2

The Video: ****

The Audio: ****

The Extras: *****

The Pulse:

Never before was the phrase "If you loved the first one, you’ll love this one" more suited. Basically a redo of the first movie with bigger sets and a heavier Kumar and even more vulgar jokes, it’s everything that fans of the franchise were expecting and then
some. Expect it to become a cult classic just like the first movie and stoners everywhere to shell out $20 for it as we speak.

Highly recommended.