Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Disgustingly funny, Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanomo Bay carries the torrch brilliantly from the original movie by sticking to the script. Originality be damned, the writers seemed to have rewritten the original movie but placing the friends in a different setting and giving them a different motive. The one thing that stuck out in this version however is the humanization of Kumar, who was merely another stoner college student pissing away his successful parent’s money. What we are given is an explanation of why Kumar is Kumar and we are also shown that he has a heart.

From the outstart of the movie, it becomes obvious that the toilet humor will be strong. There is one part where a penis is shown and the hair around it was as thick as Rip Van Winkle’s beard… funny but shockingly nasty at the same time. To counter the nasty penis, there is also a scene where about 30 beautiful women walk around bottomless, it was probably my favorite scene of the entire film. So it’s a bit of a shocker, if that type of thing is too much for you, this movie delivers it in a major way.

Neil Patrick Harris is back as himself, this time getting high on mushrooms while drinking vodka at the wheel. The Extreme Kids from the original movie were left out but their replacement is an annoyingly ignorant, racist, terrorist-chasing agent who despite all of the blatant evidence that Harold and Kumar are innocent is hell-bent on sacrificing them for being terrorists. To think, it all started from a bong…

So to sum it up Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanomo Bay is about ugly stereotypes and racism, in a funny way. You get a cop bribing a professional black man with grape soda, you have Kumar (Kal Penn) being chased as a Middle Eastern Terrorist, and you have Harold (John Cho) being chased as a terrorist from North Korea. Toss in the redneck siblings with the inbred children, the military prison guards sexually molesting their captives and a bi-racial man being asked to justify his blackness and you wonder if anyone gets left out of the racial landscape.

I found this installment to be funnier than the original, keeping me laughing or wincing from a nasty scene but never having a slow moment. The best part of it all is how it comes together in the end, there is even a positive moral to the story. I look forward to part three if there is one and I strongly urge adult fans of comedy to rent or purchase this movie.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.