Review: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

My SFIAAFF experience kicked off this afternoon with Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the sequel to the 2004 stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. The sold-out showing in the massive House 1 of the Sundance Kabuki was quite a party, especially with co-star John Cho appearing afterwards for Q&A. He apologized for missing the festival so many times, explaining that he had schedule conflicts, and sported a bandaged right wrist from an injury on the Star Trek set.

Heading off to Amsterdam in search of the hot girl from Harold's building, as well as all that legal herb, our friends end up indefinitely detained after an in-flight misunderstanding. After the titular (hehe, titular!) escape, they have to find a way to a rich friend's ranch in Texas. Yes, the Bush references flow freely, and they grow more explicit and funnier as the movie goes along.

Guantanamo Bay is not only more politically and racially alert than the hilarious White Castle, it's also funnier, better paced, better shot, and less crude. Mind you, this is no drawing-room comedy, but there's less gross-out humor. Cho (who, unbelievably, is 35) and Kal Penn are better than ever. Let yourself go, don't expect The Godfather, and you won't stop laughing.