A&E

Christmas for stoners: Harold and Kumar are back!

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Harold (left) and Kumar. We’re shocked to see that Kumar is holding a lighter.
Jeffrey M. Anderson

The Details

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Three stars
Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson
Rated R
Beyond the Weekly
Official Movie Site
IMDb: Harold & Kumar Christmas
Rotten Tomatoes: Harold & Kumar Christmas

Simultaneously embracing the American dream and American outsider status, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) return in their third movie. They now take on that most schizophrenic of holidays, with its perfect ideal and less-than-perfect reality—a concept easily applied to White Castle itself.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is nestled somewhere between Miracle on 34th Street and Bad Santa, in a world with the real Santa Claus and the ultimate Christmas gift (the “Wafflebot”), but also with the latest collection of well-crafted R-rated jokes about sex, drugs, bodily fluids and bodily functions.

It’s also one in which Harold’s father-in-law (Danny Trejo) brings his own homegrown tree for a holiday visit; when it disappears, Christmas is ruined, and he’s prepared to get all Machete on someone’s ass. Estranged at the film’s beginning, the newly re-teamed Harold and Kumar must venture into New York City on Christmas Eve in search of a replacement tree. Their holiday miracles range from a game of beer pong to a full-fledged, joyous/ridiculous 3D musical number with series regular Neil Patrick Harris (now out of the closet).

The old pals are the rock-solid center of this nutty universe, forever amazed and amused by all the stuff that just happens to them. They keep the tone just right, and the strong, external humor by original writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg sustains it. America, capitalism and Christmas may be worthy of satire, but at least we can all be friends, spend the day together and enjoy fresh waffles.

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