A crude dope-smoking comedy, Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies will no doubt
generate a fervent cult following. But that doesn't stop the story of two
super-smart stoners (Kal Penn and John Cho) who embark on a one-night odyssey to score
snacks from being almost unbearably dull. The leads are vaguely charismatic and
the script's twist on racial stereotypes refreshing, but the gross-out
humour and drugs jokes eventually wear thinner than Twiggy. Only see it if
you loved Dude, Where's My Car?
Director Danny Leiner was responsible for that spliff-toking love it/hate it
affair, too, and obviously still finds nothing funnier than watching
goofballs getting high. The variation here is that Harold (Cho) - a junior Wall
Street analyst - and Kumar (Penn) - a straight-A doctor-in-waiting - are
intelligent, together guys who testify to a truth not often acknowledged in
movies: drugs don't always bake your noodle and screw you for life
(although, of course, they do that to a lot of people).
"PEOPLE ON DRUGS ARE PRETTY BORING"
Well, terrific. But whether dope fries your mind or makes you happy, one
thing is fact: people on drugs or reminiscing about drugs are pretty boring -
unless you, too, are on drugs. So, bear that in mind when deciding whether
to catch H&K as they try to get burgers and find their evening derailed by a
boil-encrusted Jesus-freak (Christopher Meloni), 'extreme' sports thugs and
a sex-crazed Doogie Howser (a game Neil Patrick Harris). There's an audience
that will appreciate this, but they may struggle to see it through the
smoke.