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Laughs Mostly Go Up In Smoke In 'Harold & Kumar' sequel

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By DAVID GERMAIN

The Associated Press

Published: April 24, 2008

The poster for "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" is the best thing about the movie, depicting the brainy potheads in orange prison jumpsuits staring in disbelief from behind a wire-mesh fence.

That one still image captures all the inherent humor of two wily-as-Bugs-Bunny guys who are about to bust out of the U.S. military's main boarding house for terrorism suspects.

Actually seeing them in motion is mostly an anticlimactic affair as the sequel follows the fitfully funny pattern of 2004's "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle."

That first movie fizzled in its theatrical release but found an audience on DVD, leading to Chapter 2 in the adventures of best buds Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn).

The movie picks up exactly where the first one ended, with the two washing away (and in more disgusting fashion, otherwise expunging) the effects of their successful munchie run for burgers.

Now, they're off to Amsterdam so Harold can woo his dream girl (Paula Garces), and he and Kumar can openly smoke all the weed they want in the land of legalized marijuana.

Of course, Kumar can't wait, unveiling a device of his own making that will allow him to circumvent the no-smoking rule on their airplane (the sequence features a clever moment of racial profiling by an elderly passenger when she spots Kumar).

Ultra-deranged Homeland Security zealot Ron Fox (Rob Corddry) dispatches Harold and Kumar to Guantanamo, from which they escape, return to the United States and make a beeline for the wedding of Kumar's old flame (Danneel Harris), whose fiance has White House connections that could clear our heroes.

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote the first movie and move up to directing the sequel from their own screenplay, connect here and there with some funny terrorism-induced paranoia and political gags.

Hurwitz and Schlossberg inevitably revive memorable moments from the first movie, including Kumar's bedroom fantasy with a giant bag of pot and another road trip with former "Doogie Howser, M.D." star Neil Patrick Harris.

MOVIE REVIEW

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay **

MOVIE BOARD RATING: R (crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, profanity, drug use)

STARS: John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garces, Rob Corddry

DIRECTOR: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg

LOCATION: See movie times, Page 9, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: Pot-smoking friends try to outrun authorities who suspect them of being terrorists.

RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes

ON THE WEB: www.haroldandkumar.com

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