Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

	USA 2007 Director: Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Conley, Danneel Harris, Roger Bart, Paula Garcés Rating: R Release Date: 25 April 2008 Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes The Movie Review		HAROLD & KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY Storyline: Cast: Ending: Overall:
	Now, Dude! This movie is sweet! How enjoyable it is if a sequel is at least equally good to the first one. Because here's an Un-fun fact, a Sequel usually sucks! But this second entry of Harold & Kumar series is not. So let's see what these wacky duos are up to now... This comedy starts off rather unique, unlike other sequel we've seen on cinemas, this one begins with a scene just like the sit-coms on TV, where they just continue exactly the story from the previous episodes. It means it starts off where Harold and Kumar are grooming themselves on their preparation to go to Amsterdam, Netherlands. They're on a mission to Amsterdam to find Harold's girl, Maria (Paula Garcés). But the troublemaker Kumar (Kal Penn) just can't help himself to carry weeds and a bong with him to the airplane. Kumar avoids the security check by accusing the black-guy-who-resembles-Matthew-Perry as a racist. Harold (John Cho), on the other hand, is terrified with Kumar's stupidity and usual-selfishness. But Kumar thinks he is clever by inventing a smokeless bong which unfortunately looks more like a bomb. This situation is worsen by a couple of middle aged white Americans who have a prejudice against the minority. One thing led to another, Harold and Kumar end up in Guantanamo Bay detention camp. But these stoners are not running out of their luck, they do manage to escape from Guantanamo Bay, only to experience another adventure full of wackiness! Shocking and Bold! Even more than the first one. I really enjoy this film, it would be exhausting to point all the good points in this movie, but let me point the main advantage of it. First of all, the storyline is greatly improved. Harold & Kumar is not just some sort of hilarious movie filled with unrelated comedy material, but it has an actually enjoyable storyline. Second of all, bolder racist jokes, that doesn't mean that they're insulting, but instead full of insinuation and aware of current social/global issues, plus the varied characters of Asian (Harold Lee), Indian (Kumar Patel), African-American (Dr. Jon White by Lester "Rasta" Speight), Arabian (Raza Syed by Amir Talai), Jewish (Rosenberg by Eddie Kaye Thomas), White (Vanessa by Danneel Harris), and Latina (Maria by Paula Garcés) getting along and befriend each other means much more meaningful and deep than just a simple stoner comedy. -- Start of Minor spoiler possibility alert -- 3rd, of course the wacky materials, although not as many as in the first entry, just guess what would we have here, Harold and Kumar are not just destined to spend some time in Guantanamo Bay, but they also run into another friendly hillbilly and his (again) hot wife, their inbred Cyclops son, ku klux klan bonfire, insanely shocking pool party, jumping off from a plane, and meet then-president George W. Bush (James Adomian) and having a blast smoking weed together and sharing intimate conversation. -- Finish of Minor spoiler possibility alert -- 4th, of course the presence of, again, Mr. Neil Patrick Harris who has more screen minutes this time as the stressed-out Doogie Howser's actor, a narcissist, cool but a bit psychotic mushroom-eating person, this character surely helps a lot in colourizing the wackiness of this fantastic comedy movie. Neil Patrick is more stoned than Harold and Kumar joined together and multiplied by five! I just wished that I could give this movie higher rate but I found several flaws. The first Harold & Kumar is more spontaneous and emphasizes heavily on the jokes. And I admire that movie for making laugh out loud almost throughout the whole running length, that's what a comedy is all about. But this 2nd entry, it did make me laughed, but it isn't as funny as the first one, and probably because of the problem of 'lacking hilarious idea', the filmmakers of this stoner movie resort to the easy-solution of presenting women's flesh all around. However, no matter how shocking the idea of throwing a pool party filled with Bottomless girls (yeah, you heard me, bottomless), it's still inferior to the ideas found in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hypocrite, being a guy I couldn't keep my gaze off the screen, and I'm sure fellow moviegoers would not mind, it's just a critic to the filmmakers. Moreover, on the scene in the whorehouse, where Kumar dates two girls, this movie almost falls into cheap-exploitation flick, it's a cheap nudity scene. I actually expected more than this coming from both movies' writers, Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg. Although you guys did a good job in introducing the opposite personalities of Harold & Kumar in an exciting way to the audience that haven't watched the first movie. Nevertheless, as I said earlier this movie is sweet. And talking about the end scene, this might be a personal reason, but I just love the scene on Amsterdam, it's sweet, moving and jovial! Now that's what I call an amusing ending scene, with fantastic uplifting songs from Belinda Carlisle with "Heaven is a Place on Earth" (my fave from the 80s) and funky upbeat "I Love My Sex" by Benny Benassi and The Biz, I've repeated like 10 times just that ending scene alone. Ok, it sounds very personal, but Amsterdam is indeed beautiful and more importantly, the end scene is far far far better than the end scene of the Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. All in all, with bold substances of crude humor, meaningful friendship of the lead characters, brave lines of dialogues (braver than the ones in The Valley of Elah), gross out humor, gorgeous women all around, Harold & Kumar really strengthen its place in the comedy movie realm, and it really understands what fans of that genre are hoping for. Buy It! Whether you Harold & Kumar's fans, Amsterdam lovers, gross out humor enthusiasts, this movie is a keeper... © iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com Twitter: @movielogy posted: Oct 13th 2009 00:07 am

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