If the byline hasn’t already clued you in, this installment of “The Blu Room” is about a pair of stoner comedies that recently made its way to the format: Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. And the timing couldn’t have been better, with Pineapple Express smoking its way up the box office charts.
New Line Home Entertainment / 2004 / 88 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 29, 2008
( Buy it at Amazon)
I fall in the minority of those who saw the first Harold & Kumar before it became a cult success in the DVD rental and retail market. In the summer of 2004 it had the misfortune of opening the same weekend as M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, which would end up grossing more than $250 million worldwide. The duo’s trip to White Castle may have been overlooked by those looking for a summertime spookfest instead of a starry-eyed, doobie-toking comedy romp, but little did the M. Night worshipers know the heighten possibilities of watching his films with the help of Mary Jane.
Even with the cult success, I was amazed to discover that the story structure of White Castle is being taught in various screenwriting courses. The story is simple, but the execution of reaching that goal is something to appreciate. Two friends, Harold and Kumar (John Cho and Kal Penn), are unwinding on a Friday night. Harold is a low level employee who is always coerced, much to his displeasure, into doing other people’s assignments. Kumar is an Indian slacker who would rather smoke weed than fulfill his father’s wish of attending medical school. Everything changes that night when they have the urge to get a bagful of White Castle sliders and fries and gorge themselves after smoking some marijuana.
Like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, this is a road movie with misadventures at every turn. The trip is an easy start with the two friends scoring some pot at a university on their way to White Castle. But then there’s a raccoon attack, and the two meet a puss-oozing tow-truck driver named “Freakshow” (played by an unrecognizable Christopher Meloni); and you can’t talk about H&K and not mention Neil Patrick Harris (poking fun at himself by playing himself), who steals Harold’s car – Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle seemed like Mary Jane was working some of her magic.
Now the comic gem arrives on Blu-ray with 7.1 sound and a nice picture. It’s funny. The situations are far-fetched but we buy into the characters of Harold and Kumar and their goal to find White Castle. The jokes and witty banter strung throughout are what make it a comedy worth revisiting…stoned or not.
With the Blu-ray release we get a 1080p VC-1 encode image in 1.85:1. Blacks were nice and dark, and there were no print defects. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is a little overkill, considering this isn’t a sound effects heavy movie. Still, there are a few instances where your subs get a quick workout. All the extras from the original DVD release have been ported over. Despite them being in SD, its nice to have them included. Beginning things is three audio commentaries. The first is with director Danny Leiner and actors John Cho and Kal Penn. The second is with writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. Now the last track is totally unneeded; it’s a commentary with “Extreme Sports Punk #1” (and #1 only) Dan Bochart. What, was the uncredited ESP #4, J. Blake Fichera, unavailable? Still, while White Castle isn’t a title that cries out for multiple commentaries, each one is lively with information about jokes you may have missed and nonsensical thoughts about the craft service truck.
For video features, there are three featurettes (one of which sounds a little off-putting: The Art of the Fart), deleted scenes (including an alternate ending), outtakes, two trailers and a music video. As a cash-in to the sequel, a new “Extreme Unrated Remastered” DVD with movie cash was released on April 1st. The extras that were exclusive to only that release have also been ported over to Blu-ray. You get the red-band theatrical trailer for H&K Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a sneak peek 15-minute feature about the sequel and the short featurette “White Castle Craver’s Hall of Fame,” a puff-piece with Cho and Penn being inducted into WC’s Hall of Fame.
New Line Home Entertainment / 2008 / 107 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 29, 2008
(Buy it at Amazon)
Four years after H&K built a following on DVD, the friends find themselves accused of terrorism and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Like the title implies they escape the detention center. But the movie isn’t built around the escape; don’t expect The Great Escape or Harold and Kumar crawling through a sewage pipe of ungodly smelling matter. The escape is a diversion, really, delaying a Macguffin that was instigated at the end of White Castle: going to Amsterdam.
This sequel is a little bit of a mixed bag, as writers Hurwitz and Schlossberg have total control in the directing chairs. The two invent a narrative that openly mocks topical issues like the screening process at airports, the detainment camps at Guantanamo Bay and civil rights abuses. Oh, and there’s even enough time for Harold and Kumar to drop in and toke up with George W.
The combination of satire and lowbrow humor gives Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay some heat; Amnesty International USA did not like the satirical depiction of Gitmo. (Hey Amnesty, it’s a movie…get over it.) In any event, the misadventures H&K had on their way to White Castle is small potatoes to being mistaken for terrorists (and again as Mexicans), being pursued by an oafish Homeland Security official who wipes his butt with the Fifth Amendment, and visiting a Texas brothel with Neil Patrick Harris.
I’ll go out on a limb and admit that it’s hard not to be offended by this movie, either because of its crudeness or because at times it is too uncomfortable to watch. But there’s no rule that says scary movies are the only ones that can make you squirm. Sometimes seeing a guy at an all girl “bottomless” party is enough.
Escape from Guantanamo Bay has some good laughs, but the laughs weren’t as consistent as White Castle. Cho and Penn have such great comedic timing, though, that it almost outweighs the bad – the dead spots. So this is a good, not great sequel, but an easy one to recommend as a rental at least.
Making its debut on Blu-ray, the video is a 1080p/VC-1 encode image in 1.85:1. The transfer is decent enough, but don’t expect a visual marvel. Detail is fair, compression issues are nonexistent, yet there is a bit of grain detected. Again the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is overkill for a project like this. The mix is front-heavy with not much surround presence. Dialogue still is crisp, well recorded.
All the extras are presented in full 1080p with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The best special feature is an interactive one called “Dude, Change the Movie!” When activated, you will be prompted at different pre-selected points of the movie to make a decision. The choices you make allow you to effect the direction of the narrative. I’m reminded of the interactive comic book Tom Hanks created in Big; for one instance you can change the “bottomless” party scene into a “topless” affair. But there are some new subplots available that didn’t appear in the final cut. Makes you wonder how much trimming Hurwitz and Schlossberg had to do to make H&KEGB at a more manageable 107-minute comedy. Two commentaries have also been included, the best of which features the writer-directors and actors Kal Penn and John Cho.
We also get a standard making-of special with clips and interviews with Hurwitz, Schlossberg, Penn and Cho, and some of the supporting players: NPH, Beverly D’Angelo and Chris Meloni; 26 minutes of deleted scenes; 9 minutes of outtakes; and a teaser trailer, theatrical trailer and 3-minute red-band trailer. A digital copy in SD quality has also been included.
Harold & Kumar are an irreverent pair of pot smokers. A couple of smart guys that like to get high and eat and curse. If you fit that demo consider yourself pre-sold.
