To tell the truth, I watched the predeccesor to this film on the same day, and I loved it. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle was a twisted journey through America, following its two likeable leads across a angry, racist and paranoid country in a funny and intelligent film which played on stereotypes and revealed that the American Dream is not Doogie Howser, it's Neil Patrick Harris.
Fresh off of this experience, I looked forward to the second instalment. In the sequel, I would see Harold and Kumar reunited just minutes after the finish of ...White Castle, boarding a flight to Amsterdam before being wrongly convicted of terrorism and yes, being thrown into Guantanamo Bay.
The sequel is basically a retread of the first, as H & K escape with ease and find themselves traipsing across the United States once again. It's no longer original, and the targets are much easier this time, as evident in one scene where the pair encounter the Ku Klux Klan. Gone too is the subtlety in intelligence, in its place blindingly obvious pieces of social satire. Still, the priority of this feature is to make me laugh, and while I did laugh consistently, I also found that the toilet humour had been turned up a notch for this instalment, and that disappointed me. If I want to hear fart jokes, I'll fart in a friend's general direction and giftwrap it with a suitable wisecrack. It's not that I don't want to hear vulgar cockmeat sandwich jokes in these comedies, it's because I don't need to. I want a little bite to my humour, and this is what the first film gave me. Sadly, there's a lot less bite present in ...Guantanamo Bay, a film that assumes whatever toilet humour is thrown at the wall will inevitably stick.
There are some brilliant moments that I can't deny the film, most evident in the welcome return of Neil Patrick Harris for a few perfect scenes, and the addition of Rob Corddry as a Homeland Security Agent that had one hilarious scene after the next, practically lifting the film to another level of enjoyment and upstaging even Harold and Kumar themselves.
Of course, one of my most hated cliches in American film is the wedding run-in, and just when you think Harold and Kumar has capped off its ending with the best villain death ever, it rushes into the tired last shot at love that we've seen so many times before. Because I knew how these things out, I chose to switch off during this segment and reflect on my final thoughts regarding the overall film. It was a good follow-up, but ultimately hollow and creatively stagnant compared to its predecessor. Even as a retread, it did have its great moments and does earn rewatchability. It's just a shame that Harold and Kumar were once looking for acceptance in the white world of White Castle, and it seems so less interesting now they're looking for love.
**1/2
2 comments:
Did you leave your morals at the door or something? It's like setting a sitcom in Auschwitz.
Well, like I said, the first one wasn't so crass, therefore I thought this would be treated with a similar level of intelligence. Nope, there was a scene involving terrorist suspect being fed 'cockmeat sandwich'
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