Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris is there too for like 7 minutes.
Directed by: Jon Hurwitz
Written by: Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
Studio: Kingsgate
I remember the first H&K movie fondly. It had its shortcomings (dahh, they wanna go to White Castle because they're blazed) but poked fun at racism and grass-chiefin' stereotypes in a youthful and witty fashion. And there was references galore to those delicious, bowel-obliterating hamburgers that I love/hate.
This sequel, now afforded the luxury of a plot and larger budget, manages to blow it and blow it hard. And there's not a slider in sight.
Before settling into Mean_Critic_Mode, let me take a moment to be straight (forward?) with you, kind viewer: I was blazed when I saw this flick. Like flying. I walked into the Burbank AMC theater faded on top of the line tree: "3rd eye". (Mad props to Wattz for the hook up by the way) And off of a two-foot glass bong no less. So, you could have misspelled 'there' as t-h-e-i-r on an ex parte notice and I would have laughed my ass off. Also, I think there was still some OxyContin (R) still floating about in my brain - with that shit, I'd pop a smile even while watching the last act of Pay it Forward with a bunch of lugubrious sixteen year old girls.
Yet, I left this movie having smiled a handful of times and laughed once. And that laugh came in the first act. And the set up for it wasn't exactly Aristocrats-calibre: Kumar produces a bong in the cramped bathroom from miscellaneous parts he somehow got on the plane, ends up coming out with it in hand, and uninformed old people mistaken it for a bomb. The end, of laughter.
The vast majority of the movie consists of a series mish-mosh of goofy yet unfunny and rehashed bits. Let's see: Incest humor? Check. Run in with Ku Klux Klan? Check. General stereotyping of southerners? Check. Over-the-top federal agent hot on the case? Check [also, who the fuck finds Rob Corddry funny anyway?]. SHIT MAN BOOMERS = COMPLETE DISTORTION OF ONE'S PERCEPTION OF REALITY WHOOOOOOAAAA? Check.
Even NPH's scenes disappoint: the hilarious asshole side of Doogie Howser previously displayed some how spoiled in the interim and we're now left with some slurring guy tooling around. Then again, how long can one milk the joke anyway? I hope NPH doesn't do the third one. And finally treated, like finding via your tongue the razor embedded in a candy apple, to a HURR PRESIDENT BUSH HURRRrr scene, I felt like I was back watching the shitty 2005 season of SNL. Not to mention they're in Amsterdam for only 8 minutes of screen time, and in Guantanamo Bay even less. The escape itself was about 2 minutes. What I would have named the movie? Harold and Kumar: Dicking Around in the "South" But Who Cares.
So here's your rundown:
Writing: Jokes are half baked or completely rehashed.
Direction: It's a "comedy" about two minorities that happen to be stoners and stalkers, who'd expect any shots to blow their mind? The Amsterdam parts were shot on location though - made me nostalgic.
Acting: NPH totally phoned it in. Shame. Penn consistently plays the same character he plays in everything, from Superman Returns to House.
Editing: Should have been shorter. Like, a hour shorter.
Sound: Boy, I sure did hear the water splash when Kumar took that shit at the beginning of the film, mmhmm.
Soundtrack/Score: ?
Self-Awareness: One joke (in the scene after the credits no less) where NPH's godlike status is further cemented, but nothing else. Another manner it which it paled to the original.
Overall rating: * 1/2
Also, don't do drugs kids...until your brain fully develops. Hit me up when you're eighteen.
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