Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Released in 2004, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was an unabashedly lowbrow road trip comedy about a pair of stoners on a mission to satisfy their munchies. It also represented a landmark moment in the history of Asian Americans on screen, with John Cho and Kal Penn shattering stereotypes in a delicious satire of racial politics in America. Cho and Penn now return in the long-awaited sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

The film picks up right where the original left off, with best pals Harold and Kumar set to follow Harold’s new love Maria to Amsterdam. But when Kumar is mistaken for a terrorist (and his bong mistaken for a bomb), the two are cast off to Guantanamo Bay. As it turns out, escaping proves less difficult than their pursuit of love and “the chronic” (it’s also less difficult than other things, like due process)—as they journey through the Deep South while being chased by Homeland Security.

The writers of the first film, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, take the directing helm and push the narrative toward a more overtly political terrain of post-9/11 racial profiling, all while ramping up the profanity and nudity. Neil Patrick Harris reprises his role as an oversexed (and straight) version of himself, but it’s Cho and Penn’s impeccable comedic chemistry that drives this new cult franchise. As perceptive of today’s multicultural America as it is politically incorrect, the new Harold & Kumar may be the smartest dumb movie yet.