Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies Movie Review:


Stoner comedies don't do much for me, simply because they're usually jokes that are only funny if you're high. So it's a nice surprise to find a comedy that uses the format but bases both plot and humour on the characters. It's very silly, but it keeps us laughing consistently.

Harold (Cho) is a low-level investment banker whose colleagues take advantage of him shamelessly; he's so shy he can't even say hello to the cute girl next door (Garces). His life-loving childhood buddy Kumar (Penn) is a med student who can't be bothered to pursue his career. One fateful pot-infused night they decide to drive across New Jersey to get some White Castle burgers. But along the way they have a series of adventures that force them to look at their lives in new ways.

That doesn't sound like the plot of a stoner comedy, does it? Not only is there actually some subtext, but it's beautifully mined by the script and the central actors. Amid the insane goofiness there's some serious stuff happening that actually speaks to us, simply because it's so organic within the material. And Cho and Penn are such a gifted, engaging double act that we can see this turning into a franchise--or a (cable) TV series.

But it's the stupid hijinks we're here for, right? And the film has those in abundance. Director Leinar (Dude, Where's My Car) stages each mini-adventure impeccably--from Anderson's Burger Shack tirade to the escalating insanity of a visit to Princeton, from encounters with a raccoon and a cheetah (!) to a stopover with a seriously revolting tow-truck driver (Meloni) and his sex-pot wife (Akerman), from their run-in with Doogie Houser (Harris as a crazed version of himself) to a stint in a backwoods jail with a local supercop (Jobin-Bevans). Of course, we also get the required mega-dose of gross-out humour and sniggering running gags, but even those are funny. And there's even a hilarious homage to the seminal Wayne's World, but with pure heart. Or rather, Wilson Phillips.



Rich Cline

Harold (Cho) hates his investment-banking job and Kumar (Penn) does want to start his career in medicine but it’s the weekend. After getting completely stoned the munchies kick in but they don’t want the usual take out or fast food, they want the amazing burger combo from White Castle. The only problem is that the White Castle they usually go to has closed and now they have to start an epic journey to feed their craving.

When the trailer pushes the fact that is the ‘Asian Guy from ‘American Pie’’, ‘the Indian Guy from ‘Van Wilder’’ and the ‘Director of ‘Dude, Where’s my Car?’ you can’t really expect much and this movie doesn’t disappoint.

In the tradition of the American gross-out comedy, ‘Harold and Kumar get the Munchies’ tries to continue that mould but the problem is that is just doesn’t go far enough. There is absolutely nothing new in this movie and the film is completely void of those cringingly funny moments that make the genre so popular. There are a few funny moments but not enough for it to rise up to the heady heights of the ‘American Pie’ movies, which are still the standard for modern day version of the cult genre.

What makes the film still watchable however are the two leading men. The movie moves away from the typical all American central characters and highlights the comedy skills of John Cho and Kal Penn. Making the film from a different cultural perspective works and provides some good gags. You’d expect most of them to come at the two characters expense but they give as much as they get. These are two talented comedic actors but they deserve a better script that this.

There are quite a few cameos in the movie from actors associated with the genre and most of them are quite funny. ‘Van Wilder’ Ryan Reynolds pops up as a nurse, ‘American Pie’s’ Eddie Kaye Thomas shows up as a fellow stoner and Neil Patrick Harris pokes fun at his ‘Doogie Howser’ past.

While there are quite a few laughs in ‘Harold and Kumar get the Munchies’ and the two lead actors are talented, the film just doesn’t have enough to raise itself above average. It does succeed in giving you the munchies for burgers though.

Jamie Kelwick

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