watching movies one cup at a time

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is the sequel to 2004’s Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, the stoner comedy that became a hit on DVD generating a well-deserved large group of fans. This sequel picks up immediately after the end of the first story as roommates Harold and Kumar set off on a trip to Amsterdam to get the girl Harold is in love with and of course do all the things stoner’s would do in Amsterdam. Things go terribly wrong however when they get mistaken for terrorists on the plane and wind up getting sent to Guantanamo. Wackiness ensues.

I really enjoyed the first film. I thought it was clever and well done with just the right balance of low-brow humor and good natured fun. But for the second movie it feels like the filmmakers took all the things I liked about the first one and tossed them completely out the window. Any cleverness, any subtlety, and any logical sense has pretty much left the building. Instead we get 100 minutes of wince-inducing gross-out humor strung together with a series of nonsensical skits that are neither funny or fun. While the first film was one adventurous night in Jersey, this film is all over the place for no apparent reason and with no apparent direction.

The first Harold and Kumar film was directed by Danny Leiner but this film was directed by the writers of the two movies, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. It’s their first time behind the lens and perhaps it’s their inexperience that contributed to this dumb, convoluted garbage that would feel more at home as a series of “DVD extras” instead of a full-length feature. Or perhaps they took the term “stoner comedy” just a little too far while putting this together. I can easily picture them sitting around, very wasted, saying things like “Duuuuude, you know what would be freakin’ awesome? Like Harold and Kumar totally parachute out of a plane and then crash into President Bush’s house and then they all get totally stoned off their a**es together! How freakin’ cool would that be, dude!!!??” But in the sober light of day, it’s just silly and stupid.

I know there is an audience for this movie, and clearly I am not it. But I think that’s a shame because I really did like the first film. If they do a third movie (probably something like “Harold and Kumar Go To Mars”) I won’t be going to see it or rent it. Because while the writers might have a million toilet, drugs, and boob jokes up their sleeves, clearly they only had one good story in them.