I just got back from San Diego,
where my family and I soaked up as much of the city as we could in
three short days. We weren't left with a whole lot of down time, but
after our first long day on our feet, we found ourselves back at our
hotel around 9:30. It was too early to go too bed, but we weren't quite
up for more adventure. So my brother Nathan and I decided to observe
someone else's adventure instead. More precisely, we wanted to watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
I'd never seen the movie before, and wasn't particularly interested,
having heard it was pretty crude and having a deeply ingrained prejudice
against White Castle burgers thanks to the negative experience of my
parents, who lived in Minnesota for a while. Nathan had, however, and
he'd found it amusing. At the least, he lauded the title as one of the
most informative film titles ever. "Who's it about?" he asked. "Harold
and Kumar! What do they do? Go! Where? To White Castle!" Ah, yes. An
entire movie boiled down to seven words. Promising.
Harold and Kumar
is a typical quest movie, a road trip with the most ridiculous of
objects and a ludicrous series of events that transpire before the goal
is reached. One of its key players is Harold Lee (John Cho), an awkward,
nerdy, soft-spoken Korean-American investment banker with a hopeless
crush on Maria (Paula Garces), an attractive young woman who lives in
his building. The other is his roommate Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), a
smart-alecky young Indian-American genius doing his best to sabotage his
father's demands that he attend medical school. Both men are in their
early 20s with foul mouths, raging hormones and an excessive fondness
for pot.
The epic journey begins one night when Kumar, weary
from his latest purposely disastrous interview, complains of hunger and
decides, after viewing a commercial unappetizing enough to turn me off
White Castle for life, that only those tiny little burgers will satisfy
his pangs tonight. Harold, who's overloaded with work, is unenthused but
reluctantly agrees to join his friend in his quest, little knowing that
what should be a quick half-hour outing will stretch out into a
night-long journey fraught with peril.
I kind of like Harold
despite his crudeness, which isn't as pronounced as Kumar's. I feel bad
for him, getting sucked into this increasingly ridiculous scheme, while I
question Kumar's sanity in going to such extreme measures for such
shoddy-looking food. But he's a man on a mission; once he decides what
he wants, he's going to go for it, doggone it, and in some respect, I
guess that's a good thing, because his life has been pretty aimless in
all other respects. If he could apply himself to a worthwhile purpose
with the fervor with which he pursues these burgers, he'd do pretty well
for himself.
It seems the movie is trying to make some bold
statements about ethnicity; racially oriented humor gets tossed around
throughout the film, not only with the title twosome but also their
Jewish buddies Goldstein (David Krumholtz)
and Rosenberg (Eddie Kaye Thomas), the members of a club for Asian
students and Tarik (Gary Anthony Williams), a man arrested "for being
black." One especially uncouth example: an enthusiastic Goldstein
describing Katie Holmes' ample bust to Kumar as the opposite of the Holocaust.
"See, he's Jewish," my brother informed me, "so he can say that." Maybe
the jokes are cutting-edge, but I found them much more emptily vulgar
than illuminating.
The car gives them problems throughout
their ordeal, particularly when Neil Patrick Harris - who flags them
down while wandering aimlessly, walking off the effects of an especially
rowdy party - drives off with it when Harold and Kumar are in a
convenience store. Whenever he is on screen, the racial humor is
replaced with a barrage of uncomfortable references to the Doogie Howser
star's sexuality. I'm all for self-effacement, but why Harris would
agree to portray himself as such an oversexed burnout is beyond me. I
certainly hope his behavior is not an accurate reflection of who he
really is; if so, I don't think I want Neil Patrick Harris within a
hundred feet of my car...
We watched this movie on TBS, so we
were treated to all sorts of very obvious dubbing; that's a good thing,
because I don't know if my sensitive ears could have handled to real
deal. It didn't take a genius to figure out that half of what they were
saying had been sanitized - and what they were saying was bad
enough. What they were doing was pretty bad too, from stealing lab coats
from a hospital in order to acquire medical marijuana to attempting a
three-way tryst with the gorgeous wife of the hideously ugly, psychotic
but oh-so-friendly redneck Freakshow (Christopher Meloni), who gives
them a lift when their car blows a tire, though I wouldn't say either of
them quite deserved all of the misery they racked up during their
ridiculous road trip. Harold especially gets the short end of the stick
in the movie, though all his unpleasant experiences at least arm him
with a little gumption that may just serve him well in certain future
interactions. I'm almost happy for him when the inevitable meeting
occurs.
But do I recommend the movie? Oh, ecstatically. With
all the fervor with which I daydream about those luscious little White
Castle burgers.
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