Stoners and junk food go together like mom and apple pie so it sort of makes sense that you'd make a stoner comedy about two potheads and their quest for burgers. When Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle struck box office gold in 2004, it made further sense that we'd be treated to more of their adventures - and we were. Warner Brothers have treated this New Line property well on home video, giving all three movies special edition DVD and Blu-ray releases and now they go back to the well with this boxed set, just in time for Christmas! But does it offer the Harold & Kumar fan anything new? Outside of the packaging (and more on that in the Extras section), nope! But for those without the three individual releases on their shelves already...

Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle:

So yeah, this first film introduces us to Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) - two roommates who love weed and who live together in New Jersey just across the river from Manhattan. Harold works at an investment banking group where he's taken advantage of by two white employees who convince him to take their work home with him to complete over the course of his Friday night, while Kumar intentionally blows an interview with an admissions officer (Fred Willard) as he has no intention of ever going to medical school like his father wants him to. They head home, get some weed into them... and then get the munchies. When they see a commercial on TV for White Castle, they know exactly what they need and so they hop into Harold's car and head over to the White Castle that Kumar knows is just across the street from the theater. But when they get there, it's gone.

A quick talk with the drive-thru attendant at the replacement restaurant lets them know that there is a White Castle about forty-five minutes away in Cherry Hill. They decide that this is more than just a craving for burgers and more like a holy quest and so they make a pact to get some White Castle no matter what. After they get lost in Newark and witness a beating, they wind up in Princeton where they almost get laid by a pair of flatulent hotties who engage in a game of 'Battleshits' and narrowly escape being caught by campus security. When Harold's car gets a flat a kindly but rather insane towtruck driver driver named Freakshow (because of the boils that ooze puss all over his body) takes them back to his place while he repairs their vehicle, encouraging them to head on into his home and f*ck his wife. This turns out horrible of course, and things just go downhill for them from there as they're trailed by 'Extreme Sports Punks' and eventually they're wrongly arrested by racist cops only to escape from jail for an encounter with Neil Patrick Harris who is 'tripping balls' from some X he just took and looking to get it on with some strippers... all while Harold pines away for the affections of their neighbor, Maria (Paula Garces), who he is madly in love with but too shy to talk to.

A breezy ninety minutes of crass entertainment, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle is pretty funny stuff if you're in the right frame of mind for it. This is a movie where an Indian American pees on a bush only to be accosted by a creepy white guy who also wants to pee on the same bush... and compliment his pubic hair. The type of movie where two guys get high with a cheetah recently escape from a nearby zoo, only to later try and ride that same cheetah to freedom. The type of movie where parts of Canada double poorly for New Jersey (seriously, at least try and hide the Shopper's Drug Mart and Mr. Sub signs if you're going to use Toronto as a stand in) and the type of movie where Bobby Lee gets to trade pot brownies for booby touches. There's no regard for decency here, no regard for social mores or for playing things safe - instead the movie just goes for it, caring not for who it offends or why, content to be as crass as it wants to be and it's all the better for it. This is a stoner comedy, not high (f)art.

The cast are all game here, with Cho's more reserved Harold making the right sort of straight man for Penn's Kumar. The pair do a great job of poking fun at various racial stereotypes and seem pretty natural in their respective roles. The supporting cast are pretty strong here as well, with Willard doing a good job as the straight laced Dean in the opening scene and Harris stealing the show - particularly once he steals Harold's car and loads it with strippers and dope. The movie goes at a good pace from start to finish, packing enough visual gags and funny dialogue into its running time that it never gets dull or tired and there's enough bizarre and quirky bits and pieces scattered throughout the movie that it's got some good replay value as well.

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantamao Bay:

In this mediocre sequel to the genuinely funny Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are planning to go to Amsterdam so that Harold can surprise their neighbor, a girl named Maria (Paula Graces) who he has a serious crush on and who he smooched with at the end of the first film. The pair cruises through airport security with Kumar narrowly escaping a search and successfully smuggling some weed on board. When he pulls out a smokeless bong and lights up, a paranoid old woman sees him and thinks he's a terrorist. The pair are brought down by a trio of overzealous air marshals and thrown into the Guantanamo Bay prison.

No sooner do they arrive, however, then they make their escape and manage to hitch a ride across the ocean with some Cuban refugees to Miami where they meet up with their friend, Raza Syed (Amir Talai) who is in the middle of hosting a 'bottomless' party (which is exactly what it sounds like). After the party, Raza lends the pair a car and some clothes so that they can drive to Texas where they hope that Colton Graham (Eric Winter), the politically minded fiancé of Kumar's ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Harris), will be able to help them. Unfortunately for them, the insane Agent Ron Fox of the Department Of Homeland Security is doing his best to bring these two 'terrorists' to justice before they can strike again, completely oblivious to the fact that Harold and Kumar are really nothing more than a pair of slacker/stoner/frat boys. Before it's all over they'll get some help from President George W. Bush (James Adomian), Neil Patrick Harris (as himself), a strange redneck and his sibling bride, and a gang of good natured whores (lead by Beverly D'Angelo) and they'll travel half way across the country.

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay definitely has its share of laugh out loud moments but they don't come as quickly or as regularly as they did in the duo's first big screen adventure and there are a few spots in the film that drag resulting in some obvious pacing problems. That said, if you dug Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle then you'll appreciate the crass and juvenile sense of humor on display in this sequel even if it is about as low brow as you can get. You know what kind of movie you're getting into when the first scene finds Kumar interrupting Harold in the shower by taking 'the best dump ever' and detailing his bowel movements for Harold (and for us) in a fair bit of detail before commenting on Harold's wang. Yup. It's that kind of film and it's not going to appeal to everyone, particularly the prurient. But you probably knew that already.

The guest appearance from Neil Patrick Harris, once again in a very self aware role playing Neil Patrick Harris, is one of the film's highlights. It lets Harris show us that although he's happy to acknowledge and maybe even exploit his past as TV's Doogie Howser, M.D. he has grown up... or at least reached adulthood. Harris plays his part with a completely straight face and he does so quite well and anyone who knows him only from that decades old television role will likely get a kick out of his part here. It's fun to see Beverly D'Angelo show up in a bit part as well, though she's rather underused here in an appearance that is only a scant few minutes long. Of course, John Cho and Kal Penn are their usual likeable selves, turning in enjoyable performances as the two leads as the somewhat repressed would be accountant and his slacker/stoner med-school pal.

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay takes some ballsy political risks by tackling what many Americans consider sensitive issues in considering today's current political climate. The potential to offend is huge with this picture and the writer/director team of Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg exploit that potential quite effectively by taking jabs at the (at the time, current) administration and at the president himself. That said, cajones don't always mean laughs or good storytelling and the pacing issues and haphazard nature of the script take their toll on the picture. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is certainly worth a look for fans of the kind of crass humor the first film established, but it's far from a modern classic, rather, it's a mildly amusing blip and little more.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas:

The third film in the series, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas In 3-D arrives on a DVD/Blu-ray flipper disc from Warner Brothers, puzzlingly enough, without any 3-D enhancement of any kind (a Blu-ray 3-D version is available separately). Can the movie hold up without the 'stuff flying at the screen gimmick?' Yeah, more or less.

When the film begins, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) haven't talked to one another for two years. Kumar, living in a dumpy apartment which his horny Jewish friend Adrian(Amir Blumenfeld) rents out to homeless people to use as a bathroom, finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant while Kumar has been living a life with his wife, Maria (Paula Garces), out in the suburbs. It's Christmas time and Kumar's father in law (Danny Trejo) has shown up with the entire family in tow and the only thing he wants is a perfect Christmas tree. When they all head into Manhattan to attend mass, Harold opts to decorate the tree himself for them, so it'll be perfect when they get home. At this point, Kumar and Adrian show up with a package left at the old place for Harold. They open it up, it's a giant spliff and when one thing leads to another, the Christmas tree burns down.

With Harold's family Christmas in complete jeopardy, the race is on to find another perfect Christmas tree and to get it back to Harold's place and set up before his scary father in law makes it home, sees it isn't there, and disowns him. With Harold's 'new friend' Todd (Tom Lennon) and his infant daughter in tow, they wind up heading into Manhattan. Before the night is over they'll fantasize about lesbian nuns, run in to some nasty Russian gangsters with horny daughters, hang out with Neil Patrick Harris backstage at his Christmas extravaganza, experience the wonders of claymation, hang out with a waffle making robot and stop at White Castle for a snack.

Somewhat predictable in that we know Harold and Kumar are going to eventually set aside their differences and become best friends again, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is a big step up from the somewhat disappointing Guantanamo Bay film, the second so far in the series. It's also quite a bit raunchier, featuring full frontal male claymation and non-claymation nudity, a graphic scene with lesbian nuns making out in a shower room and a segment where Neil Patrick Harris heads up to heaven and gets a handjob from two naked angels in Jesus' nightclub. If that weren't enough, the movie features a baby with a taste for weed and cocaine, a 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin To Fuck With' sing along.

The film plays with racial stereotypes a lot, not just with Mexicans but with Jewish, Indian and Asian stereotypes as well, but never to the point where it feels mean spirited. Cho and Penn are as reliably funny here as they've been in the past and the film definitely moves at a good pace. The 3-D work is a constant, but viewed here in 2-D format, it's obviously lacking the impact and comes across as an intentionally obvious gimmick (it's all part of the joke). As far as stoner comedies go, this is a good one but when it's all said and done, if you like the earlier Harold And Kumar movies you're going to appreciate this one and if you don't, this will do nothing to change your mind.

NOTE: This release contains the theatrical cut as well as the longer (and raunchier) uncut version of the film.

Video:

The first movie looks the softest of the three but the AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer is obviously a few steps above what DVD could offer. Detail is fine, colors look good, there are no problems with print damage to report and the film's grain structure looks nice and natural. If you look for it you might pick up on some minor edge enhancement but the key word there is minor, it's not particularly distracting. The second film looks fine in AVC encoded 1080p high definition 1.85.1 widescreen. Again, this isn't a movie made with a super massive budget but there was enough money behind it to ensure that, for the most part, it is well shot and as such, transfers to Blu-ray rather wel. The image is sharp and detailed and free of any dirt or debris and it shows good colors and pretty decent black levels as well.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas hits Blu-ray in a nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition widescreen transfer from Warner Brothers in its original aspect ratio of 2.40.1. All in all, the movie looks great here. Detail is strong throughout (which is a blessing when the naked nuns are on screen, maybe not so much when Danny Trejo gets his close ups!) and color reproduction is excellent. A bit of minor edge enhancement is there if you want to waste your time looking for it but there are no obvious defects here. Of course, the 3-D footage looks goofy in 2-D and some of the CGI used to make all of that happen is obviously fake, but you can't fault the Blu-ray for that. Skin tones look good, black levels are strong and all in all, the movie looks very good in high definition.