Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a 2008 American buddy stoner comedy film written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), it is the second installment in the Harold & Kumar franchise, and stars John Cho, Kal Penn, and Neil Patrick Harris. The film follows Harold Lee (Cho) and Kumar Patel (Penn) as their planned trip to Amsterdam is derailed after being wrongly imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Originally considered as a direct-to-video release, Hurwitz and Schlossberg signed on for the film by January 2007, with Cho, Penn, and Harris returning soon after. Principal photography also began that month and concluded in March 2007, with filming locations including Shreveport and Amsterdam. Prior to release, the film faced backlash for its comedic portrayal of Guantanamo Bay, with Amnesty International mounting a campaign to highlight the testimonies of abuse and torture made by the camp's detainees.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was theatrically released in the U.S. on April 25, 2008, by Warner Bros., the first New Line Cinema title released after the studio's acquisition by Warner Bros. The film received mixed critical reception, with praise for the performances of Cho, Penn, and Harris, although some found it inferior to its predecessor. Conversely, the film was better received by audiences, and has gained a cult following. It was also a commercial success, grossing over $43 million worldwide. The sequel, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, was released internationally in November 2011.
Plot
After returning home from White Castle, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel decide to travel to Amsterdam, Netherlands so Harold can surprise his neighbor and love interest Maria as well as smoke Cannabis. At the airport, the duo encounters Kumar's ex-girlfriend Vanessa Fanning, who is engaged to Colton Graham, a college friend of Harold's whose family has political connections. While on the flight, passengers mistake Kumar's new invention, a smokeless bong, for a bomb and the duo is apprehended by sky marshals. Ron Fox, a neurotic and extremely racist Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, believes the duo are agents of a joint Al-Qaeda and North Korean conspiracy and sends them to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba against the advice of NSA Vice-Chairman Dr. John Beecher. After narrowly avoiding sexual assault by a guard at the detention camp due to the inadvertent assistance of two other prisoners, Harold and Kumar escape and board a Cuban refugee boat to Miami, Florida. They meet up with their college friend, Raza, at his home, who loans them a car so they can travel to Texas, hoping Colton can help clear their names.
Harold and Kumar endure several misadventures on their way to Texas, first crashing their car into an African-American neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama (in which the neighborhood offer to help), staying at the home of an incestuous sibling couple and their inbred son, then afterward escaping a Ku Klux Klan rally. Meanwhile, Fox tries to find them through several racist interrogation techniques. As Harold and Kumar hitchhike through a forest, they are picked up by Neil Patrick Harris, who manages to get them through a checkpoint set up by Fox, but then takes them to a brothel, where the mistress then shoots Harris for branding one of the prostitutes. When Harold and Kumar reach Texas, Colton agrees to help exonerate the duo. However, upon seeing Kumar reconnect with Vanessa, Colton instead delivers Harold and Kumar to Fox.
On the flight back to prison, Harold and Kumar manage to subdue Fox's men with a can of mace belonging to Harris and their fists, but Fox holds them at gunpoint, until an enraged Beecher intervenes, telling Fox that it's because of people like him that the rest of the world thinks Americans are racist and stupid. Beecher promises to get Harold and Kumar cleared, but trips and accidentally opens the cabin door, sucking out him, Harold, and Kumar. Harold manages to grab a parachute and he pulls it open for him and Kumar just as Fox falls by to his death, having jumped after them (without a parachute) to finish them off. Harold and Kumar land through the roof of a luxurious ranch, which turns out to be President George W. Bush's estate. After befriending and smoking kush with Harold and Kumar, the duo explains their misadventures and Bush gives them both a presidential pardon, and also gets the Secret Service to escort the pair to Vanessa and Colton's wedding. They expose Colton's betrayal to Vanessa and the guests, and Colton attempts to attack them, but Harold knocks him out. Kumar consoles a furious Vanessa by reciting a poem he wrote for her in college, and they reconcile. Harold, Kumar and Vanessa then travel to Amsterdam where Harold finds Maria, and the couples happily tour the city together while getting high on cannabis. A post-credits scene shows Harris coming to after being presumed dead outside the brothel.
Cast
Soundtrack
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: Original Soundtrack was released on April 15, 2008. It contains 13 songs used in the film.
Track list
"Ooh Wee (Remix)" – Mark Ronson featuring Nate Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Trife, and Saigon
"My Dick" – Mickey Avalon
"Cappuccino" – The Knux
"Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)" – Ice Cube
"My Stoney Baby" – 311
"Chinese Baby" – Viva la Union*
"Nothin' But a Good Time" – Poison
"Pussy (Real Good)" – Jacki-O
"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" – Boyz II Men
"In the Beginning" – K'Naan
"Gospel Weed Song" – Bizarre
"All That I Want" – Curtis Murphy Syndicate
"The Merkin Medley" – George S. Clinton
"I Love My Sex" – Benny Benassi
Songs that appear in the film, but are not on the soundtrack album, include:
"Whiplash" – Metallica
"Something About That Woman"–- Lakeside
"I Love Ganja" – Rastaman Ivan
"Sippin' on Dat" – Victor Rubio
"The Donque Song" – will.i.am featuring Snoop Dogg
"Mr. Shadowmaker" – Jeff Cardoni
"Toca Me Lo" – Lucci & Cruz
"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" – Elvin Bishop
"Pussy Ass Bitch" – Transcenders
"Danger Zone" – Kenny Loggins
"Hey Joe" – Jimi Hendrix
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" – Belinda Carlisle
"I've Been Around Too Long" – Marmalade
"Stick It" – Great White
"What A Wonderful World" – Louis Armstrong
John Cho (Harold) is the lead singer of Viva la Union and wrote the song "Chinese Baby" from this soundtrack.
Production
Development
Hurwitz and Schlossberg—who wrote the original Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle—were this time around at the helm as directors and writers for the follow-up from their original script, replacing the first film's director Danny Leiner and making their feature directorial debut at the same time as well. On January 31, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter announced that David Krumholtz, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry, Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Paula Garces, Jack Conley, Roger Bart, Danneel Harris, and Eric Winter will join John Cho and Kal Penn in Harold & Kumar 2.
Filming
Filming began in the third week of January 2007 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Filming concluded in March 2007, after which Kal Penn was able to start guest teaching some courses at University of Pennsylvania for their Spring 2008 semester.
Post-production
Warner Bros.' spokesman said that this film was originally produced as a direct-to-video film until a decision was made to release it theatrically.
The film cost $12 million to make.
Promotion
In October 2007, a "coming soon" poster featuring Neil Patrick Harris began circulating on the Internet. Showing Harris astride a unicorn, the advertisement poses the question "What would NPH do?"
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 52% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It may not equal its predecessor, but Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is still good for some laughs -- and food for thought." Metacritic reported the film had an average weighted score of 57 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Daily Variety declared it "Animal House meets Dr. Strangelove" and called it "one of the ballsiest comedies to come out of Hollywood in a long time." The Guardian (which rated the movie 7 out of 10) noted that despite having a "total nonsense" story, its screening was "one of the most raucous screenings I've ever attended. Even the opening credits were wildly applauded, and much of the dialog was inaudible over the laughter."
Not all reviews were so glowing; Richard Roeper of At the Movies lamented that although he enjoyed the "pot-fueled laughs and the sheer energetic lunacy of the original, I was really let down by this uninspired sequel." The New York Daily News said that "the movie forgets to stay true to their characters or to itself."
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote that you "find yourself smiling at some of the bits, wincing through many, many others, and ultimately wondering if the pacing would've improved had either H or K developed a terrible cocaine habit."
Amnesty International USA commented by saying that "Guantanamo is no joke." They have encouraged their membership to hand out fliers at movie theater screenings to promote awareness about the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $14.9 million in 2,510 theaters, in the United States and Canada, averaging $5,939 per theater and ranking #2 at the box office behind Baby Mama. The film performed much better at the box office than its predecessor which grossed $23.9 million worldwide after opening at #7 in the United States and Canada with $5.4 million.
As of July 17, the international theatrical gross stood at $43,327,445. The US DVD Sales totaled $23,872,890 as of 22 March 2009. The budget of the film was $12 million.
Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc July 29, 2008 featuring a single-disc theatrical edition, an unrated edition, or a 2-disc unrated edition. The unrated edition was featured for Blu-ray disc. The 2-disc version features a "dude change the movie" feature which lets the viewer access alternate scenes and an alternate ending including "Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam". By February 2009, the film had earned $24,255,691 from DVD sales in the United States. By 2013, the DVD release had sold 1,231,397 units and grossed $24,948,849 in the United States. The film went on to gross $30,395,809 in DVD sales.
Sequel
Kal Penn and John Cho returned in their title roles in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Danneel Harris reprised her role of Vanessa and Paula Garces returned as Maria. Neil Patrick Harris also returned for a cameo in this sequel. Eddie Kaye Thomas and Bobby Lee also reprised their roles from the previous films. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas was released on November 4, 2011.
US: New Line Cinema
UK: Warner Bros. Pictures/Pathé Pictures
See also
List of cultural references to the September 11 attacks
References
External links
2008 films
2008 LGBT-related films
American buddy comedy films
American sequel films
American LGBT-related films
2000s buddy comedy films
Cultural depictions of George W. Bush
2000s English-language films
American films about cannabis
Films about racism in the United States
Films about race and ethnicity
Films set in 2004
Films set in Alabama
American political satire films
Films set in Cuba
Films set in the Netherlands
Films set in Miami
Films set in Texas
Films shot in Louisiana
Films scored by George S. Clinton
Prisoner of war films
New Line Cinema films
Mandate Pictures films
2008 directorial debut films
Comedy films about Asian Americans
Films about Korean Americans
2008 comedy films
Films about terrorism in the United States
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Ku Klux Klan in popular culture
Warner Bros. films
2000s American films
Films about Indian Americans