Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

2004's stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle made a mere $18 million in theaters, but gained new life on DVD and has garnered a strong cult following from both weed-lovers and non-weed-lovers alike. Thus we now have Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. This sequel picks up right where the first one left off, with Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) leaving for Amsterdam, so Harold can continue to pursue his new love Maria (Paula Garces). Their plans are derailed though, when Kumar sneaks a homemade bong onto the plane and is mistaken for a terrorist. A comically racist government agent, Ron Fox (Rob Corddry) thinks that this is a sign of North Korea and Al-Qaeda teaming up in terrorist activities, and ships the pair off to Guantanamo Bay. They manage to escape the prison there, and figure their best shot is to head to Texas to get the help of their well-connected college friend Colton (Eric Winter), who also happens to be getting married to Kumar's ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Harris). With Fox hot on their tails, the duo embark on another wacky road trip, where they encounter a redneck couple, the KKK, and of course, Neil Patrick Harris (Neil Patrick Harris).

The simple review of this film would be this: pretty funny, not as good as the first one. White Castle was an unexpectedly hilarious romp, mixing low-brow humor with an undercurrent of social commentary about race relations that was actually rather incisive. Guantanamo Bay ratchets up everything to the next level, with even raunchier humor and more ambitious targets on top of race, most obviously the current administration. It's a hit-and-miss affair, with many of the jokes being predictable and a few more that fall flat this time around. There are plenty of big laughs to be found though, most notably from NPH and an inspired moment of humor about the square root of 3. The social commentary is a little more obvious and in-your-face this time around, but it manages to retain much of the wit and smarts of the first film. Despite Guantanomo Bay's flaws, Harold and Kumar are still worth taking another ride with.