"Fast Food. High Times."

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004): 5/10

Poster (c) New Line Cinema

Do you smoke pot? Neither do I, but to enjoy a stoner comedy, you don't need to be high. In fact, you don't even need to see the main characters smoke to understand that they're potheads. Think of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, or even all of the late night tokes that have been taken while watching Scooby-Doo, with that perpetual pothead Shaggy. One that takes the stoner movie from its almost innocent counterparts into the teen movie genre of the 80s that we all know and love is Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. It's the type of movie that advertises that its director also directed Dude, Where's My Car, and thinks that touting that an actor was in Van Wilder is a good thing. That's exactly the type of movie White Castle is. It's for those who like stuff like Dude (which I didn't see).

Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are stereotypes of their respective races. Harold is a milquetoast investment banker who can't stand up for himself, and Kumar is training to be an M.D., but doesn't really think anything of it. After some Friday night pot smoking, the two roommates crave White Castle burgers. They travel around in their car, smoking the occasional weed (until they run out), and getting into all sorts of trouble looking for the infamous 24/7 White Castle in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. They meet Neil Patrick Harris, aka Doogie Hauser, get in trouble with the law, and other partially drug-induced scenarios.

White Castle has its moments. By far the funniest bit of the film was Kumar's fantasy involving a huge bag of marijuana. A couple other bits are humorous, but are either too obvious or stretched out away from its potential. When they need to get a ride, they hitchhike with a horribly disfigured man. They whisper to each other about how disgusting he looks. Isn't that about the most obvious joke you could use? And, although the main characters aren't as much like the aforementioned teen comedies, it's sickeningly refreshing to see women put into a misogynist style. I'm not promoting sexism, but in such movies as American Pie (where Cho stars), the women always outsmart the men. But the awkwardness and the natural chemistry of the two stars work to the movie's advantage, and instead of making the characters the stereotypes others make them out to be, they create three-dimensional characters. That's not saying that everything in the script was as well developed. The relationships that the main characters have with their "love interests", for instance, are barely fleshed out. There's a few humorous scenes with them (love that "baggage" scene), but nothing spectacular.

The no-holds-barred feel of the movie worked both to its advantage and to its disadvantage. We see nudity usually not shown in teen comedies now, we have some bad taste (and not all of it sexual, like Pie), and we have lots of drug usage. Most movies now shy away from that, and it's this lack of boundaries that give this movie a free spirit, I suppose. A place to go where no recent teen comedy has gone before. But on the flip side, we have huge defecation contests and random grotesqueness. I don't expect everything to be tasteful, but it still takes away from the movie. And is Fred Willard contractually obligated to star in every comedy of late? I love the guy, but why not give, say, Chevy Chase or someone a chance? I did like that scene, though. It, like most of the other hit-or-miss humor, comes obviously but is pulled off in a good way. Some of the humor is even subtle (see the shirt that Harold, I believe, wears in his apartment). But since this humor is hit-or-miss, it obviously either hits or misses. Many times it misses, but when it hits, it ain't exactly a bulls-eye. Just enough to keep you from walking out of the theater. And with the box office results of this movie, they need to keep as many people in the theater as possible.

Rated R for strong language, sexual content, drug use and some crude humor.

Review Date: August 7, 2004