If you like movies such as 'Dude, where's my car?' or 'Road Trip', 'Harold and Kumar' might just be your taste. Now, that might not come as any surprise as H&K share the same director as Dude. What *is* a surprise is that many people see H&K as more than just an easy 'crazy kids getting high, wanting to see breasts' kinda movie. To them, it's something more. When I first went to the IMDb page of Harold and Kumar, there was a comment on it's main page by a certain willden21, who claimed H&K was a 'Hilarious Social Satire'.
Mind you, this comment by me is by no means intended to slam that statement. In fact, considering it's high IMDb rating and the positive reviews it got from many, young and old, I must be missing something. But what is it? Let's start with the beginning then.
Harold (John Cho) is a shy, hard-working Asian guy who, on Friday night of all nights, is being put up to do some overtime work for the office he works for. This to not only his shock, but also that of his intelligent yet lazy Indian roommate Kumar (Ethan Embry, who looks like a cross between Zach Braff and Mark Ruffalo, don't you think?). Anyway, the two stoners find themselves hungry just as a commercial for fast food joint White Castle come up. Having a serious case of the munchies, the two set out to find the nearest White Castle. As you would have guessed, that is easier said than done.
I won't go into all the detours the two make, but they include mean skater kids, a game of Battlesh*ts, a guy named Freakshow, a cheetah with horse skills, and a mysterious hitchhiker who turns out to be actor Neil Patrick Harris, famous for the TV show Doogie Houser apparently (never heard of that).
Now, considering all this, why is H&K something else, something better than the two movies I named in the beginning? Perhaps people notice the fact our two heroes are not your typical surfer dudes, and find that so refreshing they overlook the fact that 'the racial factor' is only very slightly there, and not really played out very well. Another point of interest might be the fact that Harold in the end shakes of his shyness to ask out the girl of his dreams, and yells at his superiors at work. Or that Kumar finally decides to make something of his life. But to me, it was too little too late.
What's left is an entertaining movie about two guys on the road for some hash and some breasts. Nothing more, nothing less.
5/10.
Mind you, this comment by me is by no means intended to slam that statement. In fact, considering it's high IMDb rating and the positive reviews it got from many, young and old, I must be missing something. But what is it? Let's start with the beginning then.
Harold (John Cho) is a shy, hard-working Asian guy who, on Friday night of all nights, is being put up to do some overtime work for the office he works for. This to not only his shock, but also that of his intelligent yet lazy Indian roommate Kumar (Ethan Embry, who looks like a cross between Zach Braff and Mark Ruffalo, don't you think?). Anyway, the two stoners find themselves hungry just as a commercial for fast food joint White Castle come up. Having a serious case of the munchies, the two set out to find the nearest White Castle. As you would have guessed, that is easier said than done.
I won't go into all the detours the two make, but they include mean skater kids, a game of Battlesh*ts, a guy named Freakshow, a cheetah with horse skills, and a mysterious hitchhiker who turns out to be actor Neil Patrick Harris, famous for the TV show Doogie Houser apparently (never heard of that).
Now, considering all this, why is H&K something else, something better than the two movies I named in the beginning? Perhaps people notice the fact our two heroes are not your typical surfer dudes, and find that so refreshing they overlook the fact that 'the racial factor' is only very slightly there, and not really played out very well. Another point of interest might be the fact that Harold in the end shakes of his shyness to ask out the girl of his dreams, and yells at his superiors at work. Or that Kumar finally decides to make something of his life. But to me, it was too little too late.
What's left is an entertaining movie about two guys on the road for some hash and some breasts. Nothing more, nothing less.
5/10.