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Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

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  • Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

    Short review:
    This movie is hilarious. It's also dumb, goofy, vulgar, has lots of profanity and a little bit of sex, and is completely full of marijuana references. Thumbs up.

    Longer review:
    Harold Lee and Kumar Patel are roommates, probably old college buddies although they never say so, in New Jersey. Harold is straightlaced, uptight, and tongue-tied around women. Kumar is a brilliant goof-off whose main hobby seems to be getting stoned. One night, after smoking a whole lot of weed, they decide that they need -- no, make that need -- to eat at a White Castle burger joint. (If you don't know, White Castle burgers are little square greasebombs that just slide down your throat, they're so oily. To hear my East Coast friends talk about them, they have a real cult following over there.) The rest of the film is a road movie about Weird America, as these two guys drive for hours looking for a White Castle, and get into scrape after scrape. I laughed and laughed.

  • #2
    Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

    originally posted elsewhere:


    I saw this last night at Prince Kuhio Plaza, and may go again tonight.

    Here's why: It's crude, rude, and some of the girls are nude, but it's something else. It's a comedy featuring a second-generation Korean American and a second-generation Indian American, and neither of these characters is (a) a two-dimensional stereotype or (b) a flat-out rejection of the actual TRUTH behind some of the stereotypes.

    That's right. Harold and Kumar is clever, witty, funny, smart, and a great comment on the Asian-American experience for post-grads. There's something real about the way these guys are portrayed--I honestly think most of us who grew up in Hawaii know a ton of Harolds and most of us who went to college know a bunch of Kumars.

    The main characters are a 2nd-gen Korean-American investment analyst and a 2nd-gen Indian-American med-school applicant. Both are recently out of college--Harold, the investment guy, probably has an MBA from Princeton and Kumar, who scored perfect on the MCAT, probably has an advanced degree as well (these guys seem like the kind of guys who loved college so much they tried to stay there as long as possible without sacrificing their GPAs).

    Harold is put-upon by his co-workers to do their work for them. He does it, complaining to himself all the time. In one scene, as soon as the co-workers leave him in his cubicle to do their work over a weekend while they go party, Harold says the f-word to himself. The audience REALLY laughed at this, and I think it's because Koreans in movies don't swear, unless it's one of those movies about BEING a young Korean.

    Harold is frequently receiving phone messages from Cindy Kim, a girl in the dorms at Princeton--a smart, stereotypically cute (meaning, I guess, that if you find the generic, smart, Korean girls with glasses cute, you'd find this one cute)--who wants him to go to Asian-American club meetings and socials with her. She's involved in a ton of these organizations and thinks Harold should get involved.

    I'm telling you all this because here's what I love about Harold (and the writer of this movie): Harold is definitely a Korean-American post-college guy. We (in Hawaii) all know tons of guys like this, but in the movies, guys like this are two-dimensional--they're Korean for a REASON. They're Korean in order to establish, cheaply, a stereotypical character or they're Korean in order to address the stereotypes and perhaps deny them. But where Harold is Korean-American through and through, his character doesn't try to deny that the stereotypes exist for a reason (there's a lot of truth to them). His Korean-American-ness isn't a reason for anything. It just is, and it's real, and he neither runs from the sterotype nor exploits it. Does this make sense? He's a business major because that what a lot of Korean-American boys become, but he comes across as an actual, real-life Korean-American business major--someone you'd know in real life.

    Then there's Kumar. His father (from India), of course, is a physician in a big hospital, and his older brother is a physician in the same hospital, and Kumar is expected to become a physician, too. In the beginning of the movie, Kumar is basically HANDED admission to a top med-school, but he intentionally blows the interview. He's only applying to med-schools so his father will continue to fund his lifestyle (Harold and Kumar share a two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey). He doesn't actually want to BE a doctor. He's obviously brilliant, but he takes his brilliance for granted, like all smart people. He doesn't think he's a big deal and he feels no need to prove anything to anyone.

    Okay, I don't know very many Indian-Americans, but the ones I do know weren't too far from this guy (except most of the ones I knew didn't come from families of privilege). Again, it's a stereotype, but it's a RIGHT stereotype, and no attention is really drawn by anyone in this movie EXCEPT BY CHARACTERS WHO ARE IDIOTS to the fact that he's Indian.

    There's this group of "extreme-sports" punks driving an SUV with a hang-glider strapped to the luggage rack. They look like guys in a Mountain Dew commercial. They constantly hassle Harold and Kumar about their ethnicity, making all sorts of really lame, really nasty, really stupid jokes. In each confrontation, Harold and Kumar walk away, even though they get taunted by the Extreme guys for being fags or girlies or whatever.

    I'm going to spoil this part of the movie for you, because I don't think it's that big a deal, but if you don't want any spoiler at all, just skip this paragraph: Harold and Kumar, of course, outsmart the guys at the end, taking their SUV almost the rest of the way to the White Castle (this is a road-trip movie, sorta) and discover that the extreme-sports guys are just poseurs. Their car stereo has Amy Grant and Wilson Phillips tapes in it and the hang-glider looks like it's never been used. THESE guys DON'T exist, except in movies and commercials, the film seems to say; but Harold and Kumar, they're real.

    In fact, almost nothing that happens in this movie is believable at all. Almost every character and every event is pulled out of the road-trip-movie recycle box, as if to emphasize how the exact opposite often happens in Hollywood: everything seems right except that Asian characters.

    I really think I need to see it again and take notes. [edit: I did see it again, two nights later, and did take notes, which I'm trying to write into a more interesting essay] I mean, is there significance that the guys spend the WHOLE MOVIE trying to get to the promised land of White Castle? And when they go back to Princeton because Harold accidentally throws away the guys' last joint, they go because it's really the only place they know where they can get weed. And Harold has a paralyzing crush on a Hispanic-American woman who lives in his apartment building, but he mentions in a GREAT moment in the car that he knows he's probably going to "wind up with Cindy Kim anyway," so what the heck.

    I'd ALMOST say that EVEN if you're averse to breasts and rather frank talk about sex, you should still see this if only to see how the writer and director accomplish this quite impressive feat. Almost. If you ARE averse to breasts and rather frank talk about sex, I'd say see if you can see an airplane version or a tv version sometime.

    I think it's quite terrific that in a low-brow (intelligent, but still low-brow) comedy like this, we get the most meaningful, understatedstatement of Asian-American-ness I've ever seen, because doesn't that make the most sense? That a populist movie aimed at the Hoi Polloi in American theaters would bring this artistic message? I say yes.

    Big ups from me.
    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
    GrouchyTeacher.com

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    • #3
      Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

      This movie is a guy flick. The humor had enough vulgar to it to make it fun to watch.

      I liked it!

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      • #4
        Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

        It's very silly and thoroughly enjoyable, mainly because of the charming actors who play the title characters.

        My favorite scene was definitely the cheetah exhaling.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

          That being the case my favorite scene in the movie is when Harold and Kumar are in the women's restroom in the center stall and those two girls are playing a version of battleship in the other stalls.

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          • #6
            Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

            Those are both good scenes, but the best was the short scene at the crosswalk, when Harold is desperately punching the button to change the walk/don'twalk sign. "When will they invent button technology that responds to urgency?" he complains.

            Best line in the film.
            But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
            GrouchyTeacher.com

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

              You know the part where they hightail it out of Freakshow's house? Did they leave immediately after the end of the preceding cut... or did they stick around for a bit longer and take him up on his offer?...

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              • #8
                Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                If they couldn't handle what happened in the bathroom at Princeton, there's no way they could have handled Freakshow. No matter who the other party was going to be.
                But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
                GrouchyTeacher.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                  Dammit, now I really want to see this movie. (We saw The Manchurian Candidate instead.) At least with movies like this, I'm not worried about missing too much by seeing it only on the small screen. C'mon, DVD release!

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                  • #10
                    Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                    "C'mon, DVD release!"

                    And get in a nice supply of pakalolo. Definitely the way to see this one.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                      Originally posted by pzarquon
                      Dammit, now I really want to see this movie. (We saw The Manchurian Candidate instead.) At least with movies like this, I'm not worried about missing too much by seeing it only on the small screen. C'mon, DVD release!
                      Between this movie and The Manchurian Candidate it's a 50/50 thing, either way it was a good choice. Now if the other movie you saw was Thunderbirds or Garfield than yeah you missed out.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                        While waiting for something to get done, I was reading a magazine where Christopher Meloni from Law & Order: SUV is on the cover. While reading part of the article it makes mention that he was in the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and if the life of me I couldn't remember seeing him in the movie and then reading the article so more, he played Freakshow.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                          Salon.com has a review, rather belated, of H&K. I had to suffer through a several-slide Powells Bookstore commercial to read it, though.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                            Originally posted by scrivener
                            "When will they invent button technology that responds to urgency?" he complains.

                            Best line in the film.
                            If that is the case we who passed on the flik didn't miss a thing.


                            BTW; did you know; NONE of these buttons are attached to anything. They are simply a fixture bolted to the sides of poles. Merely a response to demands that buttons for crosswalks are put in.
                            but they have no effect.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

                              Not true. Many of the buttons at older stoplight installations are completely dead, true. But there are several crosswalk buttons in Honolulu that are actually part of the intersection light control system. At some, in fact, if you don't push the button, you don't get a walk light at all.

                              Like the "close door" buttons in elevators, there are lots of examples of their being completely ineffective. But they're not all there merely as a placebo.

                              But... back to the movie. Now that it's out on DVD, I'm reading a lot about it again. I liked the Salon review (I'm a subscriber, so I avoid those "watch this ad first" annoyances), but the guy started getting lost with his racial deconstruction and "Spanglish" comparisons. Considering all the toilet humor, I still remain amused that Roger Ebert liked it quite a bit.

                              There is a sequel planned, by the way. The writers are keeping busy, though. "We did a page one rewrite for MGM recently on a spoof of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, currently titled Harry Trotter: Lord of the Balls," they said. "We absolutely love the work we did on this script and hope it’ll be the next Space Balls."

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