Harold & Kumar Escape
From Guantanamo Bay

Cheech and Chong for the 21st Century are back, but that doesn’t mean they are better than ever.

The movie begins as Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) return home from their wild adventure in the first movie, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. The two best buddies are psyched to be heading on a trip to the land of their hedonistic dreams, Amsterdam, but trouble is just around the corner. While on the plane, Harold and Kumar draw suspicion for trying to have some fun with a device that looks like a bomb, get arrested by Homeland Security, are accused of being terrorists and find themselves shipped off to Guantanamo Bay.

How can they prove their innocence?

Will they be able to escape?

Co-writers/co-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (who also wrote the first movie) try very hard to re-create the magic and popularity of the first Harold & Kumar adventure, but you can’t always capture lightning in a bottle twice.

In any movie like this, where our heroes engage in the wildest, craziest night or adventure of their lives, much of the humor comes from the inverse proportion of the task and the trouble they face. The audience is aghast and entertained by the amount of difficulties our heroes face just to get a couple of hamburgers (Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle) or get some booze to attend the school’s hottest party (Superbad). The simplicity of it all makes it more attractive (and entertaining), and gives the writers and actors a chance to be inventive. However, Hurwitz and Schlossberg reach too far for a premise in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

Sure, you will laugh at the constant stream of sticky situations the guys find themselves in, and the overabundance of potty humor throughout the film, but the whole concept seems to be too big. Do we really want Harold and Kumar wrapped up in the war on terror, as well as racial and cultural strife found throughout the Unites States? Maybe one scene like that is funny, but the best moments (and there aren’t enough) in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay go back to the basics of trouble with ladies, battling with authority figures, satisfying desires, and the outrageous behavior of Neil Patrick Harris.

Sadly, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay gives you a big feeling of déjà vu as Hurwitz and Schlossberg try to bring back some familiar characters and some situations mirror ones we already enjoyed in Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It is like the two writers/directors are a little afraid to be daring. Also, the movie is not a film for anyone with strong feelings against recreational drug use, crazy sex, or bodily functions and fluids. Let’s just say Hurwitz and Schlossberg think those types of jokes are daring, and want to live life on the edge.

Fans should make sure to stay all the way through to the end of the credits.

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is rated R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug use.