The sequel to 2004’s “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” comes a new chapter in the “Stoner comedy” genre. This time around our boys from New Jersey are off to Amsterdam to visit the love of Harold’s life, Maria. Taking place right after the first movie Harold and Kumar go straight to the airport to head to the weed capital of the world with no way of knowing where Maria is or how they can even find her.As luck would have it, once they get on the plane an old lady spots them and immediately thinks that their terrorists. She keeps calm at first but once Kumar goes to the bathroom and tries out his new invention, the smokeless bong, she mistakes it for a bomb and the boys get held up with our nation’s Homeland Security boys.
Playing on the stereotypes of every sense we have a buffoon of an officer played by Rob Corddry who is named Ron Fox. He sees them as Korean and Iraqi and figures the two countries are working together to stop our freedoms and sends the boys off to Guantanamo Bay. After an escape involving a certain kind of sandwich, Harold and Kumar find themselves on the run ranging from Miami to Alabama to Texas in order to clear their names.
Fox chases closely behind them, stopping in Alabama where Harold and Kumar leave an abandoned car, and questions some of the locals. Fox’s character, who believe all stereotypes to be true, questions a local African American and in order to get him to tell the truth, pours him a can of grape soda.
While questioning Harold and Kumar’s Jewish friends, he pours a small bag of pennies on the table playing into the Jewish stereotype. Followed by a quick comment from one of the friends says “What? About seven dollars more or less?” We see every stereotype from African Americans to Jews to Red-necks even the Klu Klux Klan makes an appearance in this movie.
The real focus is no longer on the boys getting to Amsterdam but to get to Texas where Kumar’s ex-girlfriend is getting married to an egotistical jerk who’s only concern is getting into the White House just like his dad, and befriending the president of the United States. Kumar sees this as a great way for him to break up the wedding and win back the girl he lost in college.
For all you of the Neil Patrick Harris fans out there, the answer is yes, he is back for round two and this time we see more of him and he is just as off the wall as he was before.
This time, he finds the boys in Alabama and drives them closer to Texas. Once he picks up Harold and Kumar, he immediately states that he goes where God tells him to and downs a bag of shrooms washed down with a nice cold beer. After a little driving, they run into a checkpoint brought up by Fox himself.
Neil Patrick Harris hides them under a “sticky” blanket and talks to Fox while tripping on the shrooms he just digested. Fox is star struck seeing Neil in the car, but what he doesn’t know is that Neil is tripping balls and sees himself riding on a unicorn with the “shiniest horn ever.”
Neil Patrick Harris takes them to a whorehouse where he has sex but ends up branding a lady who goes by the name of Miss Hemmingway, whose first name reflects a part of the female anatomy.
Harold and Kumar panic and grab his car and to get out of there. But don’t think this is over by a long shot, they meet and smoke pot with President Bush in his Guesthouse, jump out of an airplane, meet a Cyclops who reminds them of Sloth from the Goonies, and even talk to some Cubans on a boat and tell them what to do once they get to America.
This movie was great and if you enjoyed the first one, this will be another treat. With plenty of great actors, combined with a hilarious storyline, this movie was well worth the money to get a movie ticket.
Also, with laughs every minute, it’s hard to say you’ll catch all the jokes watching this the first time through but this movie will have a high replay value once you see it. Finally, as said by George W. Bush in the movie; “You don’t need to trust your government to be a good American, you just have to love your country.”
Adam Korman is a fourth-year student majoring in professional studies. He can be reached at AK587939@wcupa.edu.