H & K seek acceptance at White Castle (Movie only) (Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies (DVD)
Date:	27/02/07 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny

Disadvantages: Might be a bit gross for some

It can be funny sometimes how a movie can become a defining moment during a particular time. Just a few years ago in 2004, I was on holiday in Crete and had got into the habit of eating at tavernas that offered showings of the latest movie releases while you ate. The legality of this was somewhat unclear as these were films that had only just hit US audiences in movie theatres on release but my conscience did manage to overcome this possible infringement of copyright law when I became entranced by one particular movie from New Line Cinema, on a balmy evening on our beautiful holiday island.

The movie we saw was titled “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” but by the time it had crossed the pond to UK shores it had become “Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies”. Harold (John Jo) is a Korean youth working at an investment bank. Told to finish some work over the weekend by a couple of disrespectful co-workers so that they can slope off to party, Harold calls his friend Kumar (Kal Penn) who persuades him to come over and smoke marijuana. The only problem is that the conversation takes place during Kumar’s interview to gain entry into Medical School and with the interviewer overhearing the boys’ discussion, Kumar promptly gets rejected spelling trouble with his father. Harold and Kumar subsequently smoke the dope in their apartment which triggers a craving for burgers. Not just any burgers, they have to be burgers from the White Castle franchise and they set out to find the nearest outlet to indulge their desires. What follows is an apocalyptic road journey involving ker-azee raccoons, mad cap cheetahs, an insane Jesus loving mechanic and his lecherous wife and no small measure of racist behaviour from the locals!

Where the movie succeeds in spades is in its gross out comedy. In the best traditions of “American Pie”, “Dumb and Dumber” and all those teen/sex comedies, “Harold and Kumar” is a very funny movie. Both leads are utterly charming, deliberately naïve in their roles and find a timing that’s so crucial to comedy that complements the numerous sight gags along the way. Harold’s crush on Maria, Kumar’s rebellion against his father’s insistence that he follows a career in medicine and the pair’s non-violent abhorrence of the racism that they encounter endears them to the audience almost from the first reel. Directed by Danny Leiner, much of the humour translates well from his previous work on “Dude – Where’s My Car?” Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg’s screenplay is deftly handled with a subtlety that’s limited in a movie that intends to shock in the way this one does. One particular scene where the leads are trapped in a cubicle in the ladies toilets only to be subjected to listening to their potential dates playing a game of noisy “battle shits” is hilarious not so much for the gross nature of the game being played (I’ll let your imagination work it out!) but more the fevered reaction of the two boys having to listen to the stakes being increased as well as the smell in the loo! The sequence involving the multi-boiled car-mechanic "Freak Show" and his promiscuous wife is inspired and guaranteed to get you laughing. It may be viewing through the fingers at times with a decent supply of cringe worthiness but it’s beautifully conceived and expertly executed.

Where the movie doesn’t do so well is in its depiction of racism. It tries to get the message across quite early on when the duo drive pass a couple of Asian men getting beaten up by a gang of white males. It’s clear that the violence meted out is because of racial differences and the message is compounded later on when our heroes get banged up in jail by a bigoted cop only for the black boy that’s already resident in one of the cells to get a kicking as the pair escape, told to run by a black man who has just been arrested whilst looking back helplessly at the hopelessly outnumbered inmate. There doesn’t seem to be any purpose to the inclusion of the scenes other than to say that racism is still an everyday occurrence in the heartlands of the US but it would have helped to have seen some kind of consequences in at least one of the scenes other than the one in which Harold and Kumar steal the truck of a gang of racist surfers who have been persecuting an Asian store owner. The original title of the movie gives an analogous clue as to the underlying motive for the plot with the two, all-American immigrant descendants striving to find the Holy Grail of a "white castle" which translates as a metaphor for the general acceptance of all colours, race and creeds across the United States of today.

Inserting any actor to play themselves always runs the risk of audiences abroad not identifying with the person concerned and “Neil Patrick Harris” playing “Neil Patrick Harris” left me a little mystified as I wasn’t sure who he was. It seems that he does have an extensive acting CV but he just wasn’t someone well known to me and so that particular joke was lost. Some of the effects don’t work so well in the movie either. The blue screen shots of both the cheetah in general and the scene in which Kumar is looking over the ravine at the White Castle building are poorly executed with the seams showing. To be fair, this is balanced by an imaginative cartoon montage featuring animated burgers along with a very funny sequence where Kumar slips into a reverie about having a relationship with a life sized bag of hash!

Ultimately, the movie is a rites of passage that most will find endearing. With a sequel in production ("Harold and Kumar go to Amsterdam"), the Harold and Kumar franchise is established and looks set to run. It’s a movie very much in the “American Pie” mould that will appeal to viewers who find gross out comedy with a road trip theme funny. This is likely to be older teens and adults with a youngish sense of humour and with a 15 rating, this movie is not for kids. There are mild sexual scenes, occasional violence and a mature theme that make this for adults only. With a run time of just 88 minutes, quite frankly, I loved it even if its ultimate message about enduring racism appeared quite weak. I recommend the movie and look forward to the sequel with my usual trepidation when it comes to sequels simply rehashing the original movie to make more money.

Thanks for reading

Mara

DVD available from Amazon from £4.99.
More info at:www.haroldandkumar.com/






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Summary: Overview of the movie