It’s a time capsule of the Bush era’s fears and freedoms. Plus, you get to see a man escape Gitmo by hiding inside a giant robot’s crotch.
In the pantheon of stoner comedies, 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle holds a sacred spot. It was a simple, brilliant film about two hungry friends battling impossible odds for a slider. But four years later, directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (returning as writers and directors) did something that, in retrospect, seems impossibly risky. They traded the suburban New Jersey turnpike for a maximum-security military prison in Cuba.
The story begins with Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) boarding a flight to Amsterdam so Harold can pursue his crush, Maria. Mid-flight, Kumar's attempt to use a "smokeless bong" is mistaken for a terrorist's bomb by a panicked passenger. The pair is promptly arrested and sent to the detention camp. Harold Amp- Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay -2008
Next stop: Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay.
The film’s critique is sharp. The prison is run by a sadistic, incompetent warden (Rob Corddry) who is obsessed with racial profiling. When Harold pleads that they are American citizens, the Warden laughs and says, "So was Jose Padilla." The film repeatedly highlights the absurdity of post-9/11 America: where a Korean-American (John Cho) and an Indian-American (Kal Penn) are treated as enemy combatants because they look vaguely "other" and smell vaguely of weed. It’s a time capsule of the Bush era’s fears and freedoms
April 25, 2008 Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris Tagline: This time, they’re running from the joint.
The film's strength lies in its aggressive use of stereotypes to mock the racial profiling and paranoia prevalent in mid-2000s America. By placing two stoner archetypes in the middle of a national security crisis, the writers highlight the absurdity of the era's political climate. Rob Corddry provides a standout performance as Ron Fox, a xenophobic and incompetent Department of Homeland Security agent who serves as the film’s primary antagonist. It was a simple, brilliant film about two
Light up, press play, and escape into one of the bravest comedies of the 2000s.
No discussion of is complete without mentioning the scene-stealing performance of Neil Patrick Harris (playing a fictionalized, drug-addled version of himself).
