Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)

Directors:

Jon Hurwitz
Hayden Schlossberg

Writers (WGA):

Jon Hurwitz (written by) &
Hayden Schlossberg (written by) ...

Release Date:

25 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

This time they're running from the joint.

Plot:

Follows the cross-country adventures of the pot-smoking duo as they try to outrun authorities who suspect them of being terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board their flight to Amsterdam.

Plot Keywords:

Spoon | Inbreeding | Gigantic Breasts | Canceled Wedding | Attempted Prison Rape

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

John Cho	...	Harold Lee
Kal Penn	...	Kumar Patel
Rob Corddry	...	Ron Fox
Jack Conley	...	Deputy Frye
Roger Bart	...	Dr. Jack Beecher
Neil Patrick Harris	...	Neil Patrick Harris
Danneel Harris	...	Vanessa Fanning
Eric Winter	...	Colton Graham
Paula Garcés	...	Maria
Jon Reep	...	Raymus
Missi Pyle	...	Raylene
Mark Munoz	...	Cyrus
James Adomian	...	George W. Bush
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Sally
Echo Valley	...	Tits Hemingway

Also Known As:

Harold & Kumar 2 (Singapore: English title) (USA) (working title)
Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug use.

Runtime:

100 min | USA:107 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #43603) | Philippines:R-13 CORRECT: (MTRCB) REPLACE WITH: (MTRCB) (cut) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (original rating) | Singapore:M18 | Ireland:16 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Australia:MA | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Kingsgate Films

Trivia:

The mask from Neil Patrick Harris's car is Chris's mask from the band Slipknot.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the skydiving scene Kumar "swims" towards Harold. In free fall, you can't swim through the air, flailing your arms and legs just destabilizes yourself. To get two people together, all you have to do is face downwards and towards each other.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Kumar Patel: [taking a dump] Oh God, dude!
Harold Lee: [in shower] What the fuck? What the fuck? What are you doing?
Kumar Patel: I'm taking the most incredible dump of all time, man.
Harold Lee: You couldn't wait until I got out of the shower?
Kumar Patel: Um, may I remind you that we both just ate 30 burgers and 4 large orders of fries?
[continues to take a dump]
Kumar Patel: Don't worry, in a little bit I'm sure it'll hit you too.
Harold Lee: Maybe, but I'm going to wait until you get out of the shower!
Kumar Patel: Well don't wait too long. We gotta leave for the airport in an hour.
Harold Lee: An hour?
Kumar Patel: Uh-huh. Oh, hey, Roldy?
Harold Lee: Yeah?
Kumar Patel: Nice pubes.

Movie Connections:

References "Doogie Howser, M.D." (1989)

Soundtrack:

We Do It Like This

The occasional good laugh among the crudity but too few and delivered with too little intelligence

For some reason I actually found the first film pretty enjoyable and it had enough laughs for me to justify coming back to the second film. The title made me think that the story would also lend itself to be a fairly one-sided p1ss-take of the US handling of the terrorism issue and I hoped this would add a sharp element to the otherwise stoner comedy. That the film opens with Kumar taking a dump and then ejaculating up over himself amazingly did not dissuade me from this belief. However as the film went on I realised that there would be nothing particularly smart about this film and that it is all about the stoner comedy as per the first film - which, like I said, I enjoyed.

Sadly though the second film falls way short of the mark in terms of laughs. In terms of being graphic, crude and obvious it is right on point though, but the problem is that little of this material is funny when it comes to execution. So in theory the scene with George Bush (one of the worst impersonators of him I've seen) could have been barbed and cutting, instead is just basic and surprisingly lazy. In fact "lazy" is a word that sprung to mind several times throughout the film mainly because of the lack of creativity within it and also the amount of box ticking. The lavatorial humour, the excessive nudity and usual homophobia (except of course when it comes to girls) is all present but only appears to be there so that the target audience can tick them off - at very least they linger long after the joke is made. In terms of playing with stereotypes and racial profiling it does offer more and there is a certain delight in seeing so many groups generalised and slandered, however again it is hard not to feel more could have been made of it. Maybe I'm expecting too much but there was opportunity for satire to be slipped in here but it never came and it is a lesser film for its absence.

It did still make me laugh but way too infrequently for me to enjoy as a comedy even if it does have really enjoyable hits. As before the sheer juxtaposition of Neil Patrick Harris' public image with that presented in these films makes his parts easy to enjoy, even if it is a bit too "easy" on this occasion and just feels like a retread of the first film. Cho and Penn make engaging leads and they play well to the material - that much of it isn't that good is not down to their performances, if anything they deserved better. The support cast features a wonderfully daft turn from Corddy but mostly just minor roles doing the basics.

Harold & Kumar 2 may suggest a political edge with its title but ultimately it is not much more than a repeat of the first film but with increased nudity and crudity but decreased laughter rate and entertainment value. It will probably still please teenage boys with the basics but offers little to a wider audience.