Post by StevePulaski on Jul 16, 2011 22:28:52 GMT -5
John Cho and Kal Penn as Harold and Kumar.
Rating: ★★★½
"There's no sense getting all riled up every time a bunch of idiots give you a hard time. The universe tends to unfold as it should." - Guy in prison, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is nothing but a huge improvement from Danny Leiner's earlier film Dude, Where's My Car?. This is a lot smarter, more believable in most places, and gives our two main characters more deserved screen-time than Dude, Where's My Car gave Kutcher and Scott.
The reason I loved this movie so much? Because of its plot. It's nothing but two guys who go on the ultimate quest for something simple, White Castle sliders (small Hamburgers). Are those burgers really worth all of this aggravation and harm? To someone who smokes enough marijuana they are.
Harold (Cho) and Kumar (Penn) are roommates in New Jersey. Harold is a shy and geeky office employee and Kumar is the loud mouth partying type. One day, upon returning home from work, Harold and Kumar both smoke enough pot for a group of people and then look for something to eat. Kumar wants "the perfect meal," and boom, a White Castle commercial comes on TV.
Both Harold and Kumar haven't been to a White Castle in years, but that doesn't stop them. Kumar believes there is one in the multiplex downtown, but after driving to it they find out it has been made into a Burger Shack. An employee (Anderson) tells them there is a White Castle that is open twenty-four hours a day in Cherry Hill, forty five minutes away. Harold and Kumar make the trip, and everything goes awry.
There are various subplots like Harold wanting to get his dream girl, Maria (Garcés), and Kumar's father portraying Kumar to go to med-school to become a doctor like him and his brother. Kumar doesn't want to, but his dad's forceful behavior makes him think twice. Very rarely in a stoner comedy do we get so much detail on these two innocent characters, so it's a really nice change of pace.
In Dude, Where's My Car?, most of the events occurred were extremely fictitious and that is what ruined the film. The concepts of space aliens, and a bunch of other randomness added in only made everything about the film more and more unlikable. With this, with the exception of the raccoon scene, is all pretty realistic. Some parts are over-exaggerated, another part being the hang-glider scene, but it isn't over the top compared to Dude.
The quote above is something I took out of this movie at an extremely young age. I saw this around, maybe six-years-old, and have always liked the "There's no sense getting all riled up" quote. Sometimes I hear it in my head and think, "yeah, that's the way to go." It's one of my favorite quotes, and it sounds obscure that one of my favorite movie quotes comes from a stoner comedy, but stop and think, and that quote is very good and very true.
The simplicity is what makes Harold & Kumar so enjoyable. The randomness, and the film knowing its boundaries does too. Once it knows it is being funny, it doesn't hop all over the place to get the most laughs. It knows how to get laughs, and when to get them.
Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garcés, and Anthony Anderson. Directed by: Danny Leiner.