"Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" is a stoner comedy in the grand tradition of, um, "Dude, Where's My Car?," only funnier
and snappier. I will tell you without compunction that I laughed many times during the film, and I will add that 90 percent of those laughs were at things I cannot repeat here. (Well, I guess I COULD repeat them, since this is the Internet, but I won't.) The movie is approximately what you would expect; if you walk out of it offended, that's your own fault for not doing your homework before you went. It is the tale of two post-college 20-somethings and their attempt to satisfy some pot-induced late-night munchies. They are the Korean-American Harold (John Cho), a responsible type with much work to do for his investment-banker job this particular Friday night; and Kumar, an Indian-American with great MCAT scores who refuses to go to medical school because he'd rather loaf around, smoke weed, and live off his father's money. They are residents of Hoboken, N.J., and they realize in order to sate their cravings for White Castle hamburgers, they will have to drive to a nearby town. Thus begins a series of adventures, sidetracks and distractions, most of them typical of the genre: There is a horrific bathroom experience, some vehicular mayhem, and a couple run-ins with wildlife; there are many jokes focused on post-adolescent gay paranoia, where being gay is the worst thing imaginable and is therefore the funniest thing to joke about; and there are hot chicks with whom Harold and Kumar may or may not get to fool around.
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