Director:
Jon Hurwitz
Hayden Schlossberg
Cast:
John Cho ... Harold Lee
Kal Penn ... Kumar Patel
Summary:
The next day after the first movie, H&K are on their way to Amsterdam when a series of retarded events bring them to Guantanamo Bay. They quickly escape, and get chased by the government goons while searching for their next bong hit.
Review:
I pretty much hated the first movie. I didn't expect to enjoy the second one, either. There was one exception in White Castle, and one real reason to see the sequel. That's Neil Patrick Harris.
He's no exception in this installment, either. I had almost ALL my laughs with his outrageous arrogance and complete ability to instill laughs in Yours Truly. The guy was also the funniest thing that came from Undercover Brotha a few years back. When he gets furious and goes Berserker... prime choice hilarity. "I... am not... a SISSY!!" From one stupid pratfall to the next, H&K finally run into NPH once again. And once again, my laughs flowed freely.
He's a freaking juggernaut of comedy. The guy needs to be in every movie as Neil Patrick Harris.
That was pretty much my only reason to see this movie. Fortunately, I laughed about three other times as well. Such as the final moment in Kumar's flashback when he gets his first taste of the ganja. Out of nowhere Harold walks by, and that three second bit was pretty darned funny to me.
Otherwise, this is perhaps less painful of an experience than the one I had in the first movie. That's a positive. That's also not saying much at all. If you took away any jokes of farts/shit/pissing, gay sex, racism and drug use, then you pretty much don't even have a movie. The moments when a joint or bong shows itself on screen is about as frequent as an action movie requiring their obligatory fight scene. It has to appear every ten to fifteen minutes to keep the audience attentive. I can see how smoking pot could be an amusing prospect in movies; see Brad Pitt in True Romance. Just showing drug use - PERIOD - and expecting it to be a punchline is not funny to me in the least. The audience that this flick is targeted for is of course, potheads.
When an "action scene" came up (meaning showing some pot), some of the audience members cheered with glee. I have to think they are idiots. I get that they like pot, fine. You're an idiot if you really think that a movie is awesome if it relies on showing some green leaf every ten minutes.
When they aren't smoking, then someone or some animal is shitting or farting. Or pissing. Once again, proper execution can make this funny. Just DOING such a thing and expecting the act itself to make it hilarious is bad filmmaking. I don't mind a stupid comedy, but Guantanamo Bay is such an insult to my intelligence that there's no way in hell I could have a fun time with it. I was so surprised when the backwoods hick takes them to his place, only to find the inside of his house is equipped with high-class interior design and a BANGIN' wife. Big surprise there. NOT!
I was also curious about the extent the MPAA allowed for them to display bottomless women. I read that there were a huge amount of pubic wigs for the women at the party so that there would be less shown than one might expect. The MPAA approved this R rating on the first edit. I'm not surprised. The bottomless party was weaker than weak. A few bumshots, and most women standing around with no shorts, their fronts and bottoms typically angling away from view of the camera. On top of that, the women were UGLY. I mean, really hideous. I didn't WANT to see them bottomless, so I was happy that they were more conservative with this scene than I had originally believed. I figured the whole concept of "bottomless party" to be amusing. They certainly failed to make it as funny in reality than what my imagination concocted.
They top off this unfunny party with a bottomless dude. Man-meat has been more predominant in R rated comedies over the past few years, let alone MONTHS. So when he shows his jibblies, I wasn't laughing. Then having his penis in an impossibly over-saturated mop of pubic hair that really DOES look like Bin Laden's beard makes it even less funny than the filmmakers think they are.
I do NOT recommend Harold & Kumar 2 to anyone but the lovers of marijuana. If you think people smoking pot is just plain funny, then you'll probably also like the jokes that are almost entirely based on racism, shitting, pissing, farting and male dick-sucking. This movie will be right up your alley.
Me, I'm into comedies that try to be somewhat original. I like when they throw a clever twist into a worn out joke.
But NPH is a God of comedy, and this movie's one saving grace.
GRADE: D+
TRIVIA: Stay for the end credits to get a little (predictable) movie moment.