I knew my first day in Austin was going too smoothly when I showed up at South By early this afternoon and breezed right through the registration process. I was right. It took nearly six hours of waiting for a missing print before we were finally able to actually see Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. While I waited, I missed the week’s first screening of Super High Me. No loss I suspect. Meanwhile while Harold & Kumar might not be worth six hours of waiting (few movies are), but it is pretty damned funny.
Guantanamo picks up right where the first movie, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle left off. Harold and Kumar have just gorged themselves on thirty tasty little White Castle burgers and vowed to hop a plane to Amsterdam in pursuit of Harold’s recently departed dreamgirl. As the opening credits roll Harold (John Cho) is in the shower rinsing off the stink of Neil Patrick Harris, and Kumar (Kal Penn) is next to him on the toilet, battling explosive anal decompression caused by the ingestion of the aforementioned burgers. Welcome back to the world of Harold & Kumar, inventors of such raunchy comedic gems as Battleshits.
Battleshits does not make a return for the sequel, but the boys more than make up for it with copious amounts of lascivious nudity and drugs. You haven’t lived till you’ve seen Neil Patrick Harris (Neil Patrick Harris) chasing unicorns on mushrooms. Because the movie picks up literally five minutes after the last one left off, if you haven’t seen Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, the sequel will almost surely leave you lost. Many of the movie’s best jokes are references back to their previous adventure together, and besides, if you didn’t see the first movie what the heck are you doing seeing this one? Guantanamo is a movie for Harold & Kumar fans, and if you loved the first one you’re going to piss yourself laughing at this… and then probably go home to make sweet sweet love to a bag full of pot.
Let’s not get lost in pot though. Instead let’s talk a little about the plot. If you’ve seen the trailers you know what’s going on. Our stoner buddies hop a plane to Amsterdam and get mistaken for terrorists… mostly because they’re brown. “North Korea and Al Queda working together!” concludes scene stealing Rob Corddry as America’s lead FBI agent, before tossing them in a cell with a goat at Guantanamo Bay. It’s not long before they escape, and the movie launches into motion as Roldy and Kumar find themselves on another road trip, this time to clear their name and avoid being forced to eat cock sandwiches.
In the process, the whole Harold and Kumar thing loses some of the beautiful simplicity of the last movie. There was something righteously innocent and pure about their unwavering quest for those tasty burgers. It was a nice contrast to all the debauchery our heroic twosome went through to get them. Now the movie delves deeply into a more complicated plot about racism and governmental buffoonery. What it loses in innocent intentions though, it makes up for with a tighter script filled with sharper-edged jokes. Smart move by writer/directors John Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The first movie was great, but stoner humor will only take you so far. They’ve given their raunchy comedic world more depth here, and it pays off with even bigger laughs than those found in the first one.
Speaking of being raunchy, Escape from Guantanamo Bay pushes the envelope hard, taking things right to the edge. It’lll be a miracle they get this thing past the MPAA as is. The first one was a hard-R, but Harold & Kumar 2 is more like an NC-17. Who’s complaining? If you’re showing up for Harold & Kumar, then that’s what you’re looking for. The boys deliver.
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