Harold and Kumar Go To White City - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: Roadshow Home Entertainment
Certificate: MA15+ | 84 minutes minutes
Available to buy

Extras: Yes

ANYONE IN IT WE KNOW?

John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Anthony Anderson, Fred Willard

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?

After spending the early part of the evening smoking weed and getting high, med student Kumar (Penn) and investment banker Harold (Cho), get an attack of the munchies and decide to head off in search of the nearest White Castle hamburger joint, a journey which sees them sidetracked at every turn.

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

From the man who brought us Dude Where’s My Car comes another seriously deep Chekovian exploration into the human psyche from director Danny Leiner, naa, not really, Harold and Kumar is a riotous stoner comedy much in the vein of Dude and other teen epics such as Van Wilder and the American Pie movies. Harold and Kumar certainly seems a bit more intelligent and subversive than any of those flicks though. Both Harold and Kumar are portrayed as intelligent, white collar types and they are ethnic too.

Unusual for an American movie. The two leads are excellent, casually allowing you to believe in their friendship and there are some great cameos too, especially from now adult Doogie Howser Neil Patrick Harris who spends all his time in the movie high as a kite desperate to score some chick action, even stealing Harold’s car at one point, there’s also a funny cameo from Van Wilder’s Ryan Reynolds as a gay nurse who hits on Kumar.

Despite some genuinely cringeworthy moments (especially the “battleshits” sequence) there are more pluses than minuses and yes the whole movie is one giant product placement for White Castle burgers but seeing as nobody outside of certain sections of America have ever even heard of it then that’s not so bad.

Obvious and dumb then but still great fun. And hey we even managed to resist mentioning Cheech and Chong.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

Extras include a stack of deleted scenes, none of them essential, a bunch of generally funny out-takes, and the theatrical trailer.