Big foreheads, taller hair!
Harold and Kumar etc is a teen-gross out-sex comedy done better than most.
Harold is the Asian guy and it must be said a little stereotypical. He is an investment banker, very conscientious and organised. In short he is a squeaky clean uptight perfectionist.
Kumar is the Indian guy (as in “Golly-gosh” not “How”) who is Harold’s roommate. He is a slacker genius with a Dr father and brother, though he doesn’t want to follow in their footsteps even though he already has the knowledge. He is a disorganised and irresponsible slacker.
The two get stoned on a Friday night and decide (as the title demands) that they need White Castle burgers. Nothing else will suffice. So off they go.
Along the way they repeatedly meet the “extreme” gang of moron X-Sports enthusiasts and run into the hot white chick that lives in their building and whom Harold covets, but can’t bring himself to talk to.
On top of that, in between setting off and chomping down on the first burger they:
- Take an impromptu drug hunt at the local university campus and get sidetracked by a group of apparently uptight Asian students before nearly-banging some hot English chicks.
- Get help from a seemingly diseased and feral backwoods gent who offers to let them “use” his hot young wife.
- Cross paths with a zonked out poon-crazed Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD!) who steals their car and “stains” the upholstery.
- Get jailed for jaywalking.
- Ride an escaped cheetah and hang glide to freedom.
Being a gross-out sex comedy there are fluid jokes, bodily function jokes, gross jokes and dick jokes. On top of that being that the two leads are non-white there are a bunch of race-related jokes, but they tend to very carefully and painstakingly toe the line of inoffensiveness.
There are a couple of good unexpected cameos, most notably the aforementioned Doogie Howser, but also Anthony Anderson has a good scene. Thankfully neither cameo has the “Look who we got in our movie” factor.
Harold and Kumar are both likable guys, their banter is unforced and seems pretty natural despite all the freaky movie stuff that is always going on around them, and you generally want them to win. (And it must be said you reallllly want them to punch the “Extreeeeme” idiots!)
The film ended on a good note that really set up a sequel that I think was well deserved, only when it finally arrived it was pretty obvious that they were unable to capture whatever made the first film such an unexpected hit.
Of course the film gives good coverage at the end to the titular burger chain, but when they put the name in the film’s title that is a given.
One last thing. These films tend to have the most awful soundtracks featuring teeny-boppers, try-hard punk anthems and wannabe rappers. But Harold and Kumar has maybe half a dozen songs, and all of them are pretty good, and I hadn’t heard any of them before or since. That is a fair achievement in itself these days.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Whaddya know? A stoner comedy that is actually funny even if you aren’t “toking up”, or whatever the unemployed (or NBA players) call it these days. Boobs, tunes and frequent laughs without mean pointless spirited humour (which has its place, just not in these films)… good stuff.
