{2jtab: Movie Review}

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

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4 stars

Holy hayseeds and chintzy choke-weed, boys and girls!  If A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas isn’t the merriest surprise of unholy raunch and salacious retribution then I don’t know what is.  In a surprise twist of events, the film to enjoy more this weekend is a hellish barrage of 3D sacrilege, musical numbers, and good ol’ fashioned Christmas cheer.

With A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, bong-starved audiences finally have the modern day equivalent to some pretty classic Cheech & Chong antics.  Your expectations might be low and one can’t blame you.  The first sequel was an over-the-top bust that didn’t and couldn’t live up to the pot-filled quirk that made the first film an eventual success.  Thankfully, the in-your-face comedy, aided by the holiday theme and the spoofing of the rekindled 3D craze, is a more streamlined affair.  The comedy is pretty steady and, as far as the gratuitous gimmicks go, do wonders in finally wearing down critics and on-the-fence moviegoers with some pretty enthusiastic laughs.

Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) have drifted apart from one another.  It’s been six years since the events detailed in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and both seem all the merrier for the space.  Kumar has the apartment to himself (after getting booted from medical school) and Harold is in domestic bliss as a Wall Street analyst.  Their lives, their friends, their jobs, well, basically, their current state of everything is different from each other.  Harold has turned his back on his stoner ways.  Kumar is back to embracing it.

Leave it to Kumar’s mysterious package to reunite them.  It’s a scene that ends in Kumar accidentally burning down the prized Christmas tree of Harold’s father-in-law (a very intimidating Danny Trejo).  Embarking on mission number three, the two travel and traverse through New York City on a mission to find the most perfect Christmas Tree, a mission that includes Russian gangsters, Santa Claus, a spell of claymation nudity, and reunites them with the long-assumed dead Neil Patrick Harris.

With a cast that includes comedians Tom Lennon, Patton Oswalt, Amir Blumenfeld, and actors Elias Koteas and Trejo, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is easily the best of the series as everyone is bringing their A-game to the festive follies.  Everyone is enjoying sneaking moments in – even director Todd Strauss-Schulson gets a few jabs in with moments that include poking fun at the 3D format, fourth wall-breaking, smoke rings, and a claymation penis.

Series scribes Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have also dropped their mojo into the comedic mix.  The wit is sharper and that R rating is well-deserved.  Hurwitz and Schlossberg give us nude nuns, coked-up babies, The Dude as Jesus Christ, a series of awfully awesome jokes about whites, blacks, Jews, Koreans, Indians and Ukrainians and a violent episode involving a foul-mouthed Santa Claus.  Their aim is to leave no nationality or religion unturned and, like the best of archers, they hit that mark.

Even when the jokes fall flat – a penis gets stuck to an icy pole ala Ralphie’s tongue in A Christmas Story - the unrelenting energy behind the camera propels us toward the next gag with an earnest gusto that is a bit more on the winning side of things.  It isn’t a classic of comedy, but – much to my surprise – it’s classically better as a whole than as the bits and pieces being advertised in its raucous trailers.

Surprisingly, the damn thing has a bit of a heart beating within its narrative; a grain of emotional grit that has been missing from the other entries in the series.  Maybe it’s only because Harold & Kumar are getting older.  Maybe it’s because the writers are getting better.  Whatever the reason is for its success, the film and its crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and violence works more often than it doesn’t and that, in itself, is reason enough to give A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas some good cheer.

No one can say for sure that this stoner flick won’t someday become a Christmas classic.  Both A Christmas Story and Bad Santa were dismissed upon their initial release and, thanks to 24 hour cable programming, they are now staples of the holiday season.  It might not be completely heartwarming, but A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas does invoke, smoke and provoke the yuletide Christmas spirit.

{2jtab: Film Details}

A Very Harold & Kumar - Red Band TrailerMPAA Rating: R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence.
Director
: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Writer: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Cast:
Patton Oswalt; Kal Penn; John Cho; Austin Bickel; Inga R. Wilson
Genre: Comedy
Tagline:
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Memorable Movie Quote: "How you gonna be a gangsta when you lose your grill?"
Distributor:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Official Site:
haroldandkumar.warnerbros.com/site.html
Release Date: November 4, 2011
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
February 7, 2012

Synopsis: The new Harold & Kumar comedy picks up six years after the duo's last adventure. After years of growing apart, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) have replaced each other with new friends and are preparing for their respective Yuletide celebrations. But when a mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar's door on Christmas Eve, his attempt to redirect it to Harold's house ends with the "high grade" contents—and Harold's father-in-law's prize Christmas tree— going up in smoke. With his in-laws out of the house for the day, Harold decides to cover his tracks, rather than come clean. Reluctantly embarking on another ill-advised journey with Kumar through New York City, their search for the perfect replacement tree almost blows Christmas Eve sky high.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

No Blu-ray details yet available.

{2jtab: Trailer}

 

 

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