Political correctness left behind in this comedy

Friday, May 16, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Jaimie Trueblood⁄New Line Cinema John Cho, left, andKal Penn play Harold and Kumar in the sequel to their hitcomedyfilm. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

So if you’re easily or even somewhat offended at the prospect of jokes about race, rampant xenophobia or even a cookout with the Ku Klux Klan, you might not appreciate the film’s decidedly anti-politically correct take on the world.

For the rest of us, this is a wildly unapologetic comedy that will keep you thoroughly entertained and laughing right to the final credits.

John Cho (‘‘Ugly Betty”) and Kal Penn (‘‘Epic Movie”) reprise their roles as stoners Harold and Kumar, who are gradually finding their way to adulthood and greater responsibilities other than finding the perfect high.

The Dynamic Dopes are all set to head to Amsterdam so Harold can surprise his model girlfriend but the plans go awry almost immediately as Kumar decides to light up a joint on the airplane, resulting in the two being mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Despite the misleading title, the pair are actually in captivity for less than 10 minutes before escaping and heading to Texas to seek assistance from Kumar’s old romantic rival to clear their names.

Along the way, the guys encounter a pair of well-to do Southerners, a group of ‘‘intimidating” basketball players, a Klan cookout and an unforgettable time at a brothel, all while staying numerous steps ahead of an overly zealous agent (Rob Coddry, ‘‘Semi-Pro”) intent on returning them to prison.

Directors⁄screenwriters Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, both in their early 30s, are so comprehensive in their assault on anything resembling good taste that several scenes will leave you shocked they were included in the movie.

Of course when everything is fair game it’s hard to accuse them of singling anyone out but rather of poking fun at how P.C. our nation is without really being that politically correct.

Neil Patrick Harris returns to play himself, or Neil Patrick Harris if he were a horny, mushroom-popping alcoholic who can never find enough women to satisfy him.

Harris clearly has fun playing against type and is a blast in his cameo. He definitely could only play the role in the limited screen time he has because he would push Harold and Kumar to the back burner with his totally unpredictable antics.

The humor is the standard throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-hope-something-sticks variety which results in some jokes that miss the target entirely and others that will leave you in tears.

It makes for a slightly inconsistent experience but the jokes that do work are so funny that you’ll forgive the two or three that bombed before it, especially when Hurwitz and Schlossberg have James Adomian perform his spot-on President George W. Bush impersonation.

‘‘Harold and Kumar” isn’t for the intellectual seeking a deeper meaning in a movie.

It’s just dumb and goofy with a pair of stoners getting into one improbable situation after another and in this case, that’s all that’s needed for a funny, often hilarious film.