Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Starring: Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry, Jack Conley, Danneel Ackles, Eric Winter, Paula Garces
Directed by: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Rating: R
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay. They must find a way to break free and clear their names or spend the rest of their life behind bars.

Review:

Tim: After the surprisingly good Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, I was really excited to see this sequel. I was curious to see how they set this one up, since the first one felt like a stand-alone movie (how could have they done the sequel- Harold & Kumar Go Back to White Castle?). It's actually fairly clever how the sequel is set up. That helps, but the fact of the matter is that even with the original plot, the movie still feels too tired and stale. The film doesn't even get close to the highs of the original.

I really like that this film went in a completely different direction- that was absolutely the right move. It's actually pretty clever- in the first film, Harold and Kumar are desperately trying to get somewhere, and in this film, they're desperately trying to get away from somewhere. It is a testament to these characters that the story can change up, but we're still interested in them. I like the idea of having them escape from Guantanamo Bay. Its a timely story, and it's just ridiculous enough to work for this film series. Unfortunately, the actualy Guantanamo Bay and escape scenes are far too rushed. I wanted to spend more time on this, as that's the actual title of the film. Instead, they make a very quick escape, and the rest of the movie is our typical road trip film. This works to an extent, but I felt like the beginning of the movie was just too rushed.

This film wasn't nearly as funny as the original. The first film benefited from the newness of the whole thing as well as these clever, hilarious characters. While it's fun to see Harold and Kumar again, a bit of the shine from these characters has worn off. The writing does give us the expected sexual and gross out scenes, but they felt a little like the writers were just going through the motions. I wouldn't say the script was creatively bankrupt, but it moved closer in that direction than the original.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay deserves some credit for effectively changing up the the film and bringing at least some originality into the sequel. Unfortuantely, the film just isn't very funny at all. It feels too drawn out and redundant. I had an okay time watching it, but it wasn't especially entertaining or memorable. Now, I still very much like the characters (and always love seeing Neil Patrick Harris), so that aspect of the film was a definite plus. While this movie represents a huge drop in quality (and probably moves the series closer to where it was expected to be), it still had some positives to it. I wouldn't mind watching more of these movies, but the quality definitely needs to come back up.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas