Thanks for checking out our Harold And Kumar 2 Review! We had a chance to see the film at the SXSW premier last night with members of the cast in attendance, including his eternal holiness Neil Patrick Harris
The General Idea
Plot Synopsis from Imdb: Follows the cross-country adventures of the pot-smoking duo as they try to outrun authorities who suspect them of being terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board their flight to Amsterdam.
The Good
This film can be split into two parts; before Neil Patrick Harris (B.N.P.H) and after Neil Patrick Harris (A.N.P.H). The film is alright up until the man hits the screen and then explodes into the stratosphere of hilarity. His appearance in the first film delighted everyone, and his follow up met all my expectations and then some. Every time he delivered a line, the theatre went fucking nuts. NPH stole the show and everybody seemed to be fine with it. This man is a comedic actor of the highest degree, this role was tailored to showcase his ability, and his scene involving magic mushrooms and a unicorn is the stuff of legend. The pair of Harold And Kumar Films have put this man on a pedestal, and with luck others will utilize his amazing talent.
This film is chock full of jokes. If one falls flat for you another will soon grab you and pull you in. The scatter shot approach to comedy doesn’t always work, but here the number of great gags/jokes outnumbered the bad and it was a winning strategy. People were laughing often and hard throughout this film, and at the end of the day – that is what you want out of a comedy film. Much of my scoring of a film is based on “if it did what it intended to do” – and pragmatically this film excelled.
The Bad
One of the downfalls of a scatter shot approach to comedy films, is that the story will often suffer. The story here is weak and of no real interest. This would get annoying if any time was spent developing it, but luckily so little time is spent on the plot – you hardly notice it is there. The story cuts ahead so fast, and events work out so perfectly for the characters, that the film indulges in self mockery of this very fact (I found this to be both humorous and necessary). Although the story was a weakness, the fact that it was flipped over as an afterthought was the best thing that could have happened to this film.
The film picks up with Harold looking to follow his love to Amsterdam, and for no good reason a second love interest was added for Kumar. The Kumar love interest story-line has more screen time than Guantanamo Bay; and that upset me. I was annoyed to see another love story in the film, and again, this could have derailed much of the hilarity if so little time was spent on it. Multiple love interests in a comedy is always bullshit; one is bad enough.
Overall
This film was a blast to see with a packed theatre and will not disappoint fans of the original film. Neil Patrick Harris injects a nitrous boost of hilarity and the film continues on with the momentum till finish. This is certainly a film you will want to check out when you get a chance and I recommend it. Out of 10 I would give this film 7.5
