Movie Review - Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
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2004 / 88 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz
Many critics have lauded this film for being a smart social satire disguised as a dumb, stoner comedy. Well, I’m not sure if it’s that, exactly, but there is more bubbling under the surface of this film than the title and the circumstances of its plot might suggest. I’m not sure if it IS all that socially relevant, but it has some enormous laughs and it left me with such a wave of goodwill that I’m actually quite anxious to see it again.
There really isn’t much of a plot on display here, but here’s what passes for one, at any rate: two buddies named Harold and Kumar (played by John Cho and Kal Penn) get stoned one night in an effort to forget about the responsibilities and annoyances of their respective weeks. Harold is rather straight-laced, a man who does not shirk his duties and yet does little to provide himself with a good time. Kumar is an underachiever with enough brains to go quite far, provided he didn’t spend most of his time in pursuit of pot and sex. They’re a perfect yin and yang, more Riggs and Murtagh than Cheech and Chong, really. Anyway, they get stoned and suddenly develop a hunger for White Castle hamburgers to do a very suggestive ad on television (I usually succumb to Taco Bell commercials in much the same manner). Shortly afterward, our two stoner heroes hit the road in pursuit of their nearest White Castle and, along the way, run into many complications.
As you can see, the script isn’t going to win anyone an Oscar, and I’m not arguing that it should. But the movie is blessed with an obvious love and care toward its main characters, a surrealistic streak (the dream sequence that looks like its set within a videogame, a run-in with a character named “Freakshow”, and an interlude with an escaped cheetah are ample proof of this much) and a great deal of gleeful irreverence. This movie features two stoned individuals driving a car for most of its running length and makes absolutely no apologies for it. I respect that. The movie allows its main characters to learn a couple life lessons along the way, but it doesn’t sacrifice any laughs to do so. I also respected the hell out of that. Unlike a lot of so-called comedies, this one doesn’t turn off the laughs in the last half hour to shoehorn in some cheesy moral (that puts it ahead of most Jim Carrey comedies right there). And it has a hell of a lot of laughs in it, most of which stem from situations that would be unmentionable in a family-oriented context. Wild raccoons, extreme sports, emergency room snafus, racial stereotypes, Neil Patrick Harris and female diarrhea are just some of the situations that are grist for the comedic mill in this picture. It’s irreverent, it’s hilarious, and if some of the jokes fall flat, they are more than redeemed by the ones that had me nearly doubled over with laughter (including a bit involving a very large bag of pot).
All in all, “Harold and Kumar” isn’t trying to reinvent the comedy, but it is trying to put the humor back into it, and I loved it for doing so. It cares about its characters, it includes a lot of laughs and it had me smiling and nodding knowingly for the majority of its running length. And, oddly enough, it IS refreshing that the two main characters aren’t just a couple of average white guys. These are characters we haven’t seen put on this sort of quest before, played by two guys with impeccable comic skill. It may not be great art, but it IS great entertainment. And, after sitting through movies like the “Scary Movie” trilogy and some of Ben Stiller’s most recent efforts, that’s definitely enough.
