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T urns out that not all the profiling in "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" happens in the movie.
The Heavenly Village Cinema staff nailed it: "Let me guess: Two for 'Harold & Kumar.' " Maybe it was our precise 7:05 arrival for the 7:15 showing. Maybe it was demographics. (For the record, I'm older than Kal Penn, the actor who plays who Kumar but younger than John Cho, aka Harold.) Maybe it was some other factor, but they were right.
After a beginning that reminds you in no uncertain terms that this is installment No. 2 in the cycle, the movie hinges on profiling. Only the Department of Homeland Security gets it all wrong, pegging the two affable, intelligent and frequently stoned heroes of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" as a terrorist cabal between North Korea (Harold is Korean-American) and al-Qaida (Kumar's South Asian, not Middle Eastern, but whatever).
The combination of cultural ignorance and Kumar's unwise decision to say the word "bong" on an airplane lands the duo in the clutches of Ron Fox (actor Rob Corddry from "The Daily Show") and eventually in the titular military prison in Cuba.
Just writing that down, I thought about the opportunity to use Harold and Kumar's plight to rip on (or off) a variety of films beyond the war on terror - from "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest" to "Red Dawn" or "Bend It Like Beckham." Writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, though, take a different tack, springing Kumar and Harold out of the brig - hence the title - and into a flight across the South to Texas.
Ultimately, Guantanamo isn't much harder for Harold and Kumar to escape than the New Jersey jail they busted out of in "White Castle." Even though Gitmo is right there in the title, it doesn't take up much psychic space in the movie - Kumar's ex, a brothel, the Klan and the return of Neil Patrick Harris and of an anthropomorphic bag of weed, figure as prominently as the prison.
Instead of a madcap cross-country chase, the first movie never looked beyond New Jersey or farther ahead than the promise of sticks and sliders in Cherry Hill. In widening the scope and broadening the humor, Schlossberg and Hurwitz lose the wry sharpness of "White Castle."
Maybe pot really does mellow you out: Why else would Penn (Kalpen Modi split his first name into a stage name), a Barack Obama supporter, let the movie pull its best punch, letting President Bush off the hook for all those indignities at Guantanamo, especially during mealtime? Maybe Kumar is a smart guy who can help out with calculus and write poems about irrational numbers, but he's so happy he lost a step.
Maybe I'm just splitting hairs (or testing them); if you approach the sequel in the right frame of mind, it still generates guffaws. But having the same release date as "Standard Operating Procedure," the critically acclaimed documentary about Abu Ghraib, could have been as much of an opportunity for a sharp satire as an unhappy coincidence.
Word is Hurwitz already has the green light for a third installment. Maybe there's still time to put the stone - you know, like, hard and sharp - in the stoner.
The Heavenly Village Cinema staff nailed it: "Let me guess: Two for 'Harold & Kumar.' " Maybe it was our precise 7:05 arrival for the 7:15 showing. Maybe it was demographics. (For the record, I'm older than Kal Penn, the actor who plays who Kumar but younger than John Cho, aka Harold.) Maybe it was some other factor, but they were right.
After a beginning that reminds you in no uncertain terms that this is installment No. 2 in the cycle, the movie hinges on profiling. Only the Department of Homeland Security gets it all wrong, pegging the two affable, intelligent and frequently stoned heroes of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" as a terrorist cabal between North Korea (Harold is Korean-American) and al-Qaida (Kumar's South Asian, not Middle Eastern, but whatever).
The combination of cultural ignorance and Kumar's unwise decision to say the word "bong" on an airplane lands the duo in the clutches of Ron Fox (actor Rob Corddry from "The Daily Show") and eventually in the titular military prison in Cuba.
Just writing that down, I thought about the opportunity to use Harold and Kumar's plight to rip on (or off) a variety of films beyond the war on terror - from "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest" to "Red Dawn" or "Bend It Like Beckham." Writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, though, take a different tack, springing Kumar and Harold out of the brig - hence the title - and into a flight across the South to Texas.
Ultimately, Guantanamo isn't much harder for Harold and Kumar to escape than the New Jersey jail they busted out of in "White Castle." Even though Gitmo is right there in the title, it doesn't take up much psychic space in the movie - Kumar's ex, a brothel, the Klan and the return of Neil Patrick Harris and of an anthropomorphic bag of weed, figure as prominently as the prison.
Instead of a madcap cross-country chase, the first movie never looked beyond New Jersey or farther ahead than the promise of sticks and sliders in Cherry Hill. In widening the scope and broadening the humor, Schlossberg and Hurwitz lose the wry sharpness of "White Castle."
Maybe pot really does mellow you out: Why else would Penn (Kalpen Modi split his first name into a stage name), a Barack Obama supporter, let the movie pull its best punch, letting President Bush off the hook for all those indignities at Guantanamo, especially during mealtime? Maybe Kumar is a smart guy who can help out with calculus and write poems about irrational numbers, but he's so happy he lost a step.
Maybe I'm just splitting hairs (or testing them); if you approach the sequel in the right frame of mind, it still generates guffaws. But having the same release date as "Standard Operating Procedure," the critically acclaimed documentary about Abu Ghraib, could have been as much of an opportunity for a sharp satire as an unhappy coincidence.
Word is Hurwitz already has the green light for a third installment. Maybe there's still time to put the stone - you know, like, hard and sharp - in the stoner.
