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In 2004, they went on a road trip to satisfy their slider cravings. In 2008, they went on the lam. Since then, they’ve worked in the White House and explored the final frontier. But John Cho and Kal Penn just couldn’t resist returning yet again to play a couple of pot-smoking misfits (who, by now, really should be old enough to know better) in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.
In the years since their Guantanamo Bay adventure, Harold and Kumar have fallen out of touch. Smart, sensible Harold (Cho) is married and working on Wall Street, while Kumar (Penn) is still the same clueless, irresponsible stoner that he always was.
On Christmas Eve, Kumar’s ex announces that she’s pregnant—and his response is less than ideal. Convinced that he’ll never grow up and take responsibility for his actions, she walks out.
Harold, meanwhile, is dealing with a problem of his own. His disapproving father-in-law (Danny Trejo) has brought the whole family over for Christmas—and Harold has agreed to decorate his beloved Christmas tree. But then Kumar shows up to drop off a package and ends up burning down the tree. With just hours to go before Harold’s in-laws return, it’s a race to find an acceptable replacement.
As you might expect from the pot-smoking pair, their latest adventure finds them in all kinds of wild and crazy predicaments. The third film in the franchise isn’t exactly a road trip comedy, since they’re not really trying to get somewhere, but the random scenarios are pretty much the same as before. This time around, the aging stoner buddies are hunted by mobsters, they expose a toddler to all kinds of illegal substances, and they once again meet up with Neil Patrick Harris (who, despite his fatal shooting in the second film, managed to cheat death).
Like the other two films in the series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is crude and offensive and often blasphemous, with comedy that caters to the most sophomoric sense of humor. So if you think naked body parts and bodily functions and illegal substances are hilarious, you’ll giggle your way through the entire adolescent adventure.
To be fair, the first part of the film is surprisingly funny—thanks, in part, to some clever additions. When it comes to the 3D graphics, anything goes—and the gimmicky 3D gags are often ridiculously entertaining. At the same time, the new cast members—like Trejo as Harold’s tough, Christmas-loving, silly-sweater-wearing (and Korean-hating) father-in-law and Thomas Lennon as Harold’s nerdy new best friend—bring some new life to the same old story. After a while, though, the tasteless humor gets old and tiresome.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas does have its moments—especially if you happen to be 18, male, and stoned out of your mind. For everyone else, though, the buzz wears off just a little too quickly, leaving behind nothing but the same old stunts and a bad case of the munchies.
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