Since neither of us are big enough Sex in the City Fans to be able to say anything constructive about the movie, we decided to mix things up a bit and take a look at a movie that's been hovering in the top ten at the box office for a number of weeks and which also just arrived at our local theater. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (R) finds the stoner duo (John Cho and Kal Penn) in a load of new trouble after they are mistakenly arrested for being terrorists.
Ryan: We never reviewed the original, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but like most people we discovered its comedic flair on DVD. I wasn't expecting much when I watched it and was pleasantly surprised at how funny it truly was. It didn't break any comedic ground. It was just a really funny film, which in itself is normally enough for a comedy. Unfortunately so goes the fate of most comedic sequels, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay fails to capture the charm and more importantly the laughs of the first feature film.
Andy: It was probably pretty easy to see the letdown of this movie coming; it’s clear in the title. From a comedic standpoint, going to Whitecastle is a whole lot funnier that escaping from Guantanamo Bay or going to Amsterdam (the film’s original title). The film wastes little time in proving that point, as the Guantanamo Bay sequence is one of the weakest ones in the movie. Furthermore, most of the political-based humor the movie attempts falls flat. Luckily there are still enough funny moments for the movie to be watchable.
Ryan: The first movie was loaded with cinematic ridiculousness but it still worked. It doesn't work as well in this latest film mainly because the ridiculousness has been too amped up. Centering the film around the idea of sending the duo to Guantanamo Bay isn't really funny nor does it make for an intriguing comedic storyline. Furthermore a lot of the gags as well as the plot are too predictable and just too silly to buy into.
Andy: Harold and Kumar make sure they earn the R-rating the film carries with a near endless stream crass jokes and situations. That is not always a bad thing, but often it seemed like jokes were put into the movie because it was going to be rated R, rather than because they were funny or the advanced the story, or they enriched the characters. This is frequently the case with cheap comedies. If they throw enough gags out there, everyone will find a few of them funny. The fact that the movie usually suffers for it is something that doesn’t seem to matter too much.
Ryan: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is definitely not the worst comedic sequel of all time (anybody remember Weekend at Bernie's 2—I hope not). It does have some laugh-out-loud moments and some funny one-liners. But the most important aspect of the movie is the fact that two young minority movie stars can successfully (from a financial standpoint with this particular film) be the leading men in a comedic vehicle. That is definitely significant because even though Hollywood is a liberal place those liberal notions do not always trickle down.
Andy: This is not a bad movie, but it lacks much of the charm of the first one. Without that charm it comes across a kind of a run-of-the-mill R-rated comedy. At times you’ll laugh, at times you’ll be annoyed, at times you’ll be bored. And it is safe to say that without the familiarity of the characters from the first film, this one would likely have been a flop.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay fails to live up to the standard of the first film, but it does contain enough laughs to warrant a C-.
Ryan: We never reviewed the original, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but like most people we discovered its comedic flair on DVD. I wasn't expecting much when I watched it and was pleasantly surprised at how funny it truly was. It didn't break any comedic ground. It was just a really funny film, which in itself is normally enough for a comedy. Unfortunately so goes the fate of most comedic sequels, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay fails to capture the charm and more importantly the laughs of the first feature film.
Andy: It was probably pretty easy to see the letdown of this movie coming; it’s clear in the title. From a comedic standpoint, going to Whitecastle is a whole lot funnier that escaping from Guantanamo Bay or going to Amsterdam (the film’s original title). The film wastes little time in proving that point, as the Guantanamo Bay sequence is one of the weakest ones in the movie. Furthermore, most of the political-based humor the movie attempts falls flat. Luckily there are still enough funny moments for the movie to be watchable.
Ryan: The first movie was loaded with cinematic ridiculousness but it still worked. It doesn't work as well in this latest film mainly because the ridiculousness has been too amped up. Centering the film around the idea of sending the duo to Guantanamo Bay isn't really funny nor does it make for an intriguing comedic storyline. Furthermore a lot of the gags as well as the plot are too predictable and just too silly to buy into.
Andy: Harold and Kumar make sure they earn the R-rating the film carries with a near endless stream crass jokes and situations. That is not always a bad thing, but often it seemed like jokes were put into the movie because it was going to be rated R, rather than because they were funny or the advanced the story, or they enriched the characters. This is frequently the case with cheap comedies. If they throw enough gags out there, everyone will find a few of them funny. The fact that the movie usually suffers for it is something that doesn’t seem to matter too much.
Ryan: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is definitely not the worst comedic sequel of all time (anybody remember Weekend at Bernie's 2—I hope not). It does have some laugh-out-loud moments and some funny one-liners. But the most important aspect of the movie is the fact that two young minority movie stars can successfully (from a financial standpoint with this particular film) be the leading men in a comedic vehicle. That is definitely significant because even though Hollywood is a liberal place those liberal notions do not always trickle down.
Andy: This is not a bad movie, but it lacks much of the charm of the first one. Without that charm it comes across a kind of a run-of-the-mill R-rated comedy. At times you’ll laugh, at times you’ll be annoyed, at times you’ll be bored. And it is safe to say that without the familiarity of the characters from the first film, this one would likely have been a flop.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay fails to live up to the standard of the first film, but it does contain enough laughs to warrant a C-.
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