Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (Unrated Single Disc) (2008)

"...a guilty pleasure that retains the anarchic charms of the original.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"They are Abbott & Costello with dirty mouths--indomitable, ungovernable, and possibly immortal.  David Denby, The New Yorker
"An over-the-top and beyond-PC comedy that...infuses party-hearty anarchy with hectoring moral outrage.  Joe Leydon, Variety
"Harold and Kumar are pothead patriots in the first feel-good torture film.  Richard Corliss, Time
"The big payoff, of course, is Neil Patrick Harris reprising his role as "Neil Patrick Harris."  Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club
"That rare sequel that builds on the movie that came before it without crushing its attributes to death.  Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
"It's not exactly high art, but it's certainly high.  Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Editor's Note America's favorite pothead pals, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn), return with an uproariously un-PC sequel that skewers everything from racial prejudice to the president of the United States. HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY picks up shortly after the first film, cult favorite HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, as the boys plan an impromptu trip to the Mecca of Marijuana: Amsterdam. There, Harold will unite with the love of his life and Kumar will achieve cannabis bliss. The two soon find themselves in hot water when Kumar sneaks a bong onto the flight and is mistaken for a bomb-wielding terrorist. Indeed, after a run-in with racist Homeland Security agent Ron Fox (Rob Corddry of THE DAILY SHOW), the two land in the hottest water of all: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After escaping from prison and fleeing back to the U.S., the two set out across country to get help from Harold's politically connected former classmate, who is also marrying the girl that Kumar let get away. Along this oddball odyssey they will encounter incestuous rednecks, the KKK, gun-toting prostitutes, and a drugged-out Neil Patrick Harris (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER). But when the ex-classmate turns the two over to the authorities, Harold and Kumar must use their wits--plus a dash of luck and a dose of humility--to earn their freedom, win back their respective loves, and save their friendship. Original writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg return for both screenwriting and directing credits, ensuring that the budding franchise retains the same subversive sensibility while upping the audacity of its satire. Frequently raunchy but reveling in the bonds of acceptance and friendship, HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY is a madcap romp that delivers plenty of humorous highs.

	Kal Penn
	Rob Corddry
	Roger Bart
	Neil Patrick Harris
	John Cho
	Tobias Emmerich - Executive Producer
	Carsten H.W. Lorenz - Executive Producer
	George S. Clinton - Composer
	Jon Hurwitz - Screenwriter
	Hayden Schlossberg - Screenwriter
	Daryn Okada - Director of Photography
	Richard Brener - Executive Producer
	Joe Drake - Executive Producer
	Greg Shapiro - Producer
	Nathan Kahane - Producer
	Jon Hurwitz - Director
	Hayden Schlossberg - Director

USA Today
"[A] film that is even more raunchy and raucous than its predecessor....This long strange trip of a sequel also is surprisingly subversive and politically charged." 04/26/2008

New York Times
"[T]he HAROLD & KUMAR movies, of which this is the second...go further than most stoner raunch comedies in acknowledging certain realities of contemporary American life..." 04/25/2008

Entertainment Weekly
"Cho gives Harold's exasperation vigor and snap, and Penn plays Kumar as a fully fleshed character." 05/09/2008 p.46

Sight and Sound
"Penn and Cho's appeal as a bickering duo is undiminished...and it's not out of order to talk of a greater emotional depth in this sequel..." 08/01/2008 p.63

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "[T]he scenes from their college days are a-ma-zing..." 04/24/2008

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's fun catching up with the fellas, as genial and trouble-prone as ever." 11/01/2008 134

Reel.com 7 of 10
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is one of the weirdest comedies in quite a while. It's a stoner film with limited, pro-PC pot jokes, a political satire where the humor is so frat boy obvious that even Dick Cheney would get it. There's offensive racial stereotyping, blatant bigotry, enough penis gags to send adolescent males into uncontrollable fits of awkward laughter, and a pair of likeable performances that walk the fine line between clever and caricature...John Cho is a joy to watch as our uptight Asian hero. He provides the necessary balance to Kal Penn's frequently flailing, foolhardy Kumar. When they interact--both pre- and post-puffing--there's a clever, almost classic comic chemistry...With original director Danny Leiner gone, writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg step behind the camera for the first time, and they actually do a decent job. Even with filmmaking as scattered and piecemeal as this, they manage to keep everything (except Corddry) from careening wildly out of control. The best moments come via a returning Neil Patrick Harris as a hapless, horndog version of himself, and when a President Bush lookalike (James Adomian) blazes away with his new pardon-seeking buddies. During these slightly surreal scenes, Harold and Kumar Escapes from Guantanamo Bay crackles. At other times, it's the same old smoke out. - Bill Gibron

ReelViews 7 of 10
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay exists because it was cheap to make and has a devoted core audience, not because its predecessor, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, was a blockbuster. The filmmakers, understanding what made the first movie successful with its adherents, avoided changing the formula this time around. The second H&K movie might just as easily be called Harold and Kumar: More of the Same. Escape from Guantanamo Bay picks up where White Castle ended and continues the comedic episodic story, stretching it out to epic length, albeit without epic content...Determining individual reaction to Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a slam-dunk. Those who applauded White Castle will enjoy this one; those who didn't would do better seeing something else...In the final analysis, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay delivers what's expected from it and what the characters' fans have been craving since the White Castle escapade. The movie is unpolished, unabashedly un-PC, and takes on as many "sacred cows" as it can uncover in a slightly-too-long 105 minutes. It's sporadically enjoyable in a silly, mindless way and it's hard not to laugh at least a few time while awash in all the bad taste. To its credit, the film never pretends to be more than it is and it never tries to do more than what is expected of it. - James Berardinelli