Harold & Kumar Escape from Gauntanamo Bay

Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481536/

This review contains minor spoilers.

I liked the first Harold and Kumar movie; it had some great jokes and even stood up to multiple viewings which not all comedies do. That made it a pretty awesome comedy, and this new adventure is even better than the first. It’s very similar to the original, it’s a road trip movie where the trip is far more important than the destination and while I was worried that it’s ridiculously abundant political undertones would ruin the movie, they actually made it into something new that was more enjoyable.

Considering the movies title and the majority of the marketing for the film, the duo actually escape prison really early on in the movie. So early in fact that I was confused as to why they named the movie after what amounts to maybe 2 scenes. I guess it’s true that the prison escape sets the stage for the rest of the film as the duo are now fugitives being pursued by an over-zealous lover of Top Gun and NPH who works for the Government. And by about the half way mark you start not really caring about the movie’s name and just enjoying yourself.

The best part about this movie, bar none, is Neil Patrick Harris. I liked him in the first movie, he was pretty funny and fit well into the plot but he didn’t steal the show for me. In Guantanamo though he was definetly my favorite part. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve grown so fond of his character on that show “How I met your mother” but he was hilarious in this. There is a scene where he comes across mister Top Gun Government man and what ensues is perhaps the funniest scene in the entire film.

It was not all candy and rainbows however, the movie did have some faults. There was a decently large amount of jokes that fell flat, and while most of the movie felt new there was a couple of scenes that were startlingly similar to the original film just with a changed gimmick or two. These all were only really noticeable in hindsight but the one thing I didn’t enjoy was the guy they cast as George W. He had the voice down pretty well and his dialog was decent but the mannerisms didn’t look right and so were kind of distracting. But most of all he just didn’t look enough like the President. I’m positive they could have found an actor just as capable who could have looked far more like him. It may not be distracting for some viewers but it sort of killed a lot of his scenes for me.

Apart from a few arguably insignificant faults, the movie was very funny and I definetly enjoyed watching it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed the first one, or any fan of the “stoner comedy” genre.

~ by Hobbes on April 26, 2008.