Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is proof that there is such a thing as too much fanservice. What was once an unsuspecting stoner comedy with surprisingly potent social commentary is now a full-blown political comedy but with very little to say.
In the tradition of 80's movies, this sequel starts off literally seconds after the first movie ended, with our two stoner heroes still sporting scars from the hang glider incident. On their way to Amsterdam, they bump into Kumar's old college ex Vanessa (Daneel Harris) at the airport, herself en route to Texas to marry a politico's son. Soon enough, Harold and Kumar are mistaken for terrorists and thrown into Gitmo. They manage to break out (very easily apparently) and return to America as fugitives. They begin their journey to Texas to ask help from Vanessa's fiancé, but Kumar, still in love with her after all these years, has other ideas in mind.
The problem with this scenario, as should be obvious, is that it immediately eliminates itself from its own sub-genre. Rather than a stoner comedy, Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a raunchy road trip comedy with two characters occasionally smoking pot when the plot slows down enough. The trivial and absolutely ridiculous attempt to score White Castle burgers was defining for Harold and Kumar as characters because it was the type of quest that's imminent to stoners. The motivation, the goal and the catalyst were all the same: a singular determination to eat at White Castle. Even the pot-smoking was in direct relationship with that goal, so they could maintain the munchies. In the sequel, it's all haphazard. The motivation is Amsterdam, the goal is a wedding, and the catalyst is a case of misunderstanding. It's not that it's bad writing, not at all; it's just a case of the series losing its identity.
Any scene of the two smoking pot in this sequel feels forced and inserted, like a desperate attempt to stay true to being a stoner comedy even though the stakes are obviously raised too high (no pun intended) for weed to be of any importance. For that reason, Escape from Guantanamo Bay also tries to hit the same beats as the first movie—freakish hillbilly cabin in the woods, Kumar's marijuana wet dream, racist authority figures, douchebag white boys, Neil Patrick Harris and whores—but driven far, far off the edge. The subtlety in handling racial misfits is gone, and their idea of a replacement is to have Harold & Kumar simply stumble into a KKK rally.
Is it funny? Of course it is, and it's downright hilarious at times. Kal Penn and John Cho still possess the excellent chemistry they displayed in the first movie, and the jokes are dirtier than ever. A particularly inspired sequence is when the idiot government agent played by Rob Corddry interrogates a black man by spilling grape soda on pavement, probably the closest this film ever came to matching the first movie's mischievous plays with racial stereotypes. We also get to learn more about our two heroes—including a flashback to how Kumar first started smoking weed—culminating in a test of the strength of their friendship (aww!). The big surprise of the movie, though, is its sympathetic portrayal of George W. Bush, supplying an amusing explanation for his presidency.
It still remains that, in widening the scope, they've also lost the one thing that made the first movie so appealing. The conclusion of the first film was ultimately satisfying because we could almost taste their joy as they eat those White Castle burgers, after their long night of going through hell just for that small victory. In comparison, clearing their names as fugitives is too distant of a task, and stopping a wedding at the last minute is for Hugh Grant to do, not Harold and Kumar.
Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a fun distraction and it has its moments of brilliance, but a year from now, when it's either a rainy day or the 20th of April, choosing which one of the two to watch is easy. You want the one that, after it's over, might inspire you to go on a quest of your own and enjoy a delicious midnight meal. Don't choose the one that gets you stomped on by US Marshalls.
"Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" opens April 25, 2008 and is rated R. Comedy. Written by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg.
