Opinion
‘White Castle’ sequel ignites anticipation
April 17, 2008
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that completely and utterly destroys everyone’s expectations. A few years ago, I saw the trailer for the pot comedy “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”—a movie that follows the adventures of two stoners too stubborn to give up their dream of the perfect meal. It looked absurd—the kind of outrageous and cheesy B-comedy only a stoner could enjoy.
When I finally saw “White Castle,” I was shocked! The movie was incredibly funny—just as raunchy and outrageous as I had expected, but certainly a grade-A comedy. And now the official sequel, “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” releases in theaters April 25, and I have to say that I’m almost as excited about it as I am about the new Indiana Jones flick coming out in May.
Harold and Kumar are icons of my generation. Addicted to fast food and a laid-back lifestyle, Kumar is a relentlessly lazy pre-med graduate who refuses to go to medical school despite his “natural capacity for medicine.”
His uptight roommate Harold is a social doormat who can’t muster up the cajones to talk to the cute girl next door. But after stuffing himself full of White Castle near the end of the film, he finally works up the courage to say hi.
“Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” is a movie filled with laughs and some humorous political commentary. For instance, Harold shares a jail cell with a bespectacled black guy reading a book. Later, the over zealous adrenaline-junkie (read: racist) cops in the station mistake the book “Essays on Civil Disobedience” for a gun, and tackle the guy violently.
I’m hoping and expecting more of this in “Escape From Guantanamo Bay”—one of the Internet trailers for the movie shows a clip of Kumar holding a massive glass bong on an airplane as passengers freak out. He attempts to calm everyone down by yelling “IT’S ONLY A BONG!” which, of course, comes out sounding comically like “bomb.” I’m hoping moments like these fill “Guantanamo” with laughs like the first.
Perhaps the best part about “Harold and Kumar” is the cameo-turned-star performance of Neil Patrick Harris, known to most as Doogie Houser, M.D. “N.P.H.” as he is repeatedly referred to, plays himself as a drugged-out hornball on ecstasy that can’t get sex off his mind.
Harold and Kumar struggle to relate to N.P.H. after picking him up on the side of the road. They both want him to be a cool, friendly guy but he simply isn’t he’s just an ass. And it looks like Doogie will have an even larger role in “Guantanamo,” as the official movie poster is simply a gigantic picture of him riding a unicorn.
No matter how absurd things get in “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” you can bet that N.P.H. will be there pushing boundaries right alongside. For those of you who missed the first “Harold and Kumar,” do yourselves a favor and check out “Escape from Guantanamo.”
Joe Hager is a student at UW-River Falls.