Director: Todd Struss-Schulson

Production: Mandate Pictures, Kingsgate Films, New Line Cinema

Writer: John Hurwitz, Hayden Scholssberg,

Cast: Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Patton Oswalt,

Paula Gårces, Amir Blumenfeld, Thomas Lennon

Runtime: 90 min

Rating :  R

 

 

 

We have been waiting quite a while for the weed smoking Asian best friends, and now they are here. They are a strange duo and so is the release of a Christmas themed movie  a month and a half before Christmas. And now that A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas has hit the screens it is good time to add that they really do not disappoint us. Neil Patrick Harris is alive!!! NPH is alive!! NPH is alive! ohkay, done. This trailer looked good, looked great in fact. And now the movie is  exactly what you expect from a Harold and Kumar movie.

Some of it is because the writer duo, John Hurwitz and Hayden Scholssberg, has again penned this installment. However director Todd Struss-Schulson is the new addition to the gang.

As far as I know Kal Penn quit his job working in the White House Office to make this movie. Good Idea Kal!! (then he got back again, he simply don’t seem to believe in the film it seems!!!) Its been some times since they came together for White Castle and Guantanamo Bay. I almost gave up even ‘wanting’ to watch another addition to the series. And suddenly here it is, with trailer and all.

As friends go and their friendships go, Harold and Kumar are living very different lives. Harold has given up smoking, has become succesfull, married, (though not successfully married)has climbed the rungs of the social ladder. Whereas Kumar has been ditched by his girlfriend, made new friends with Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld) and is busy smoking weed. Christmas spirit plays a role and the Kumar receives a package meant for Harold and the friends meet after ages, in as awkward a manner as possible.

What follows is typical Harold and Kumar along with a pot, weed, cocaine  smoking kid, a very angry father-in-law, a baby wanting wife and a a frantic search for a perfect Christmas tree!! And inspite of all their differences in life Harold and Kumar take no time to get back, and to get back in messing things up unwanted.

Go watch it. However, don’t expect that the movie has no filp side!!

What is truly fantastic is the 3D bit. While the film itself acknowledges that 3D is now done to death, still weed smoke, and eggs being thrown at viewers in 3d is sure better than seeing hungry horrid animals hurling across you!  The 3d effects are intelligent, even as Harold doubts a new HDTV even though it supposedly makes “Avatar looks Avatared”. The very next shot of pushing the hands out towards the 3D effect will sure make you laugh. The bad part is Harold and Kumar was popular because it had a sense of poking fun at the current social situations, a la Guantanamo Bay and White Castle, the new Harold and Kumar has somehow done away with it.

The first half of the movie is great fun, and therefore a good money-value worth laugh!! In the second part the fun continues but the memory of the old Harold Kumar adventures would  poke you and you will know that fun-poking to Bush part is missing, BADLY missing. Neil Patrick Harris as always is a great addition, and he brings in that zing for a while. He stays for a short time and that time is probably the funniest of moments in the film. Also NPH says that there might be a fourth one.

Releasing in the early November (4th in USA), this 3D  comedy looks like a lot of fun. It is indeed a good watch. Only wish it released somewhere around Christmas. With big movies like Puss in Boots, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Happy Feet 2 releasing, this one might not stay in the halls till Christmas. However, Harold and Kumar have their own set of loyal fans, therefore this film might make a great start to the movie lovers all around for two great months full of great releases.

For international dates and more moviez releasing in November click here.