Movie Reviews
The red glassy eyes and dry mouths furiously filed into the theatre fighting for the best seats they could find for the pre-screening of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Looking at the host of characters in the theatre I began to wonder what I should expect from the next hour and a half. I envisioned a poor plot, bad acting, and faked stupidity. Needless to say some of my visions came true, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t find myself catching my breath in between laughs.
If you are out to see a deep plot and good solid thinking this should be your last stop, but if you are looking for really random adventures with two stoners this is the place. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) start off the night by refusing the 9-5 (sponsored here by www.refuse925.com ) working world for a night of searching for weed and terrible White Castle hamburgers. Their adventures lead them from cliché to cliché; to be specific through the woods to a boil-faced man’s house and his obviously hot wife, into the gas station with the Indian man, and through many mishaps with the ‘extreme’ bullies.
Some of the highlights throughout the movie are provided by appearances by Neal Patrick Harris and Jamie Kennedy – with Kennedy’s leaving me squirming in my seat due to a hilarious and extremely random “urinal” meeting. Other highlights include the questioning by the dorky Princeton fellow and his immediate change to party man. The stereotypical overachieving police department and their constant beating of innocent and quite harmless black men also provides for quite a laugh. 
From a DASH standpoint I really think that they overplayed the role of weed and certainly should have had a better regard for smoking and then driving. However, this was clearly not a movie that was meant to demonstrate good habits.
Harold and Kumar certainly follows a very close path behind the recent “Dude Where’s My Car” and provides a similar amount of laughs. If you are interested in all of that without a plot and characters from previous movies, then go ahead and wait until it comes out on video.
Category: Comedy
Ratings:
1) Plot: D
2) Characters: C+ (because of the cameos)
3) Category grade: B
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Overall: C+
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