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Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
New Line Cinema

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 57 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.7 out of 10
based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 47 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug use

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Roger Bart, Neil Patrick Harris, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Roger Bart, and Neil Patrick Harris

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay marks the triumphant return of these two hilarious, slacker anti-heroes. Their last adventure found them traveling across country to find a White Castle hamburger in order to satisfy a weed-induced case of "the munchies." This time, the boys get themselves in trouble trying to sneak a bong on board a flight to Amsterdam. Now, being suspected of terrorism, they are forced to run from the law and try to find a way to prove their innocence. What follows is an irreverent and epic journey of deep thoughts, deeper inhaling and a wild trip around the world that is as "un-PC" as it gets. (New Line Cinema)


GENRE(S): Adventure  |  Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Jon Hurwitz
Hayden Schlossberg
 
DIRECTED BY: Jon Hurwitz
Hayden Schlossberg
 
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: April 25, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

78
Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Anyone can come up with jokes about incestuous rednecks or pubic hair that "looks like Osama bin Laden's beard," but it takes guts to make a comedy in which the Indian-American hero accuses an African-American TSA agent of racial profiling, all so he won't get caught smuggling weed onto a plane.
Read Full Review
75
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The big payoff, of course, is Neil Patrick Harris reprising his role as "Neil Patrick Harris."
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It's not exactly high art, but it's certainly high.
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75
Premiere Jenni Miller
At the screening I attended, someone walked in wearing a shirt that read "I HEART BONGS," so that gives you a pretty good idea of the target audience. Maybe this time they will rouse themselves from the couch and make it possible for us to follow Harold and Kumar through more adventures.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Precisely because their attitudes are so bluntly hedonistic and apolitical, Harold and Kumar manage to be fairly persuasive when they get around to criticizing the status quo, which the movie has the wit to acknowledge itself as part of.
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70
Variety Joe Leydon
An over-the-top and beyond-PC comedy that sometimes deftly, sometimes slapdashedly infuses party-hearty anarchy with hectoring moral outrage.
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70
The New Yorker David Denby
They are Abbott & Costello with dirty mouths--indomitable, ungovernable, and possibly immortal.
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70
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Honestly, the most shocking thing put forth in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay just might be the proposition that George W. Bush is actually a pretty cool guy.
Read Full Review
70
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
That rare sequel that builds on the movie that came before it without crushing its attributes to death. "Escape" doesn't feel belabored. Giddy, freewheeling and sweet-natured, it pulls off the effect of seeming spontaneous, a tall task by itself.
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70
Time Richard Corliss
Harold and Kumar are pothead patriots in the first feel-good torture film.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Harold and Kumar, fortunately, never lose their verbally relentless way of delivering raunch as pure common sense.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If only the wit weren't overwhelmed by lame jokes about body parts, functions and fluids.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
Mostly, Harold is a guilty pleasure that retains the anarchic charms of the original.
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63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
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.
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63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
No political tract, but it can be surprisingly bold.
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60
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The jokes all revolve around weed, stereotypes, and Neil Patrick Harris; the stereotype stuff is by far the funniest.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Among the variations of gags from the original are a threesome involving Harold, Kumar and a giant bag of marijuana.
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50
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Is a truly political stoner movie even possible? The entire point of getting high is to take some of the sting out of life. The movie goes after easy targets and goes soft on the harder issues.
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50
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
It exploits post-9/11 anxieties as fodder for goofball gooniness. "Dr. Strangelove" it's not.
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50
The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
Lacks the fresh charm that made their first such an unexpected (if guilty) pleasure.
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50
Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Mostly dumb, no matter how desperately and even valiantly it aims for "thinky."
Read Full Review
50
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
It can devote itself entirely to bodily functions or, having established its grossness quotient, take the high road toward satire like its 2004 predecessor, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." It fails mainly because it does neither.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
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.
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42
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The movie is sporadically funny in an anarchistic way. But Cho and Penn don't have the needed personality or comic identity to sustain a franchise and their non-drug humor is so crude and scatological that -- to say the least -- it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.
Read Full Review
40
New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
It's a big fat missed opportunity.
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40
Slate Dana Stevens
It betrays the spirit of the stoner comedy, which has traditionally been subversive--when it wasn't detailing the love affair between two marginally functional young men and their stash of sweet, sweet herb.
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30
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A largely mind-numbing experience.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bill L gave it a6:
Definitely not bad, but doesn't top the first one. However, considering how its just another low-budget stoner movie, it is well written and definately deserves a view for college kids with a free weekend.

Chad S. gave it a2:
If everybody was stoned out of their minds on weed, nobody would care if you were Korean, a Gujarti Indian, or Neil Patrick Harris. That message still applies to "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay", but this unforeseen(and unnecessary) sequel is nowhere near as fun as its predecessor, whose modest story of two American stoners(who just happened to be said Korean and Guajarti Indian) on a quest for the perfect burger, was transgressive, but above all else, hillarious. Beset with two appealing filmic elements: Guantanamo Bay, and Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris, "Harold and Kumar..." wastes both, by not using locale and comedic weapon in tandem. Isn't it obvious? Harold(John Cho) and Kumar(Kal Penn) should go to Guantanamo Bay to free Doogie Howser on a fried commando raid. The "escape from Guantanamo Bay" should be the film's climax, not just some matter-of-fact episode in the pair's stoned road trip. Just imagine the surreal fun that could be had if the star of the ABC sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" was actually an Islamic fundamentalist?

Tom S. gave it a2:
This was a pitiful, unfunny sequel to the brilliant initial film. Boring, predictable, and juvenile. Real disappointment. Avoid it.

Tyler H. gave it a10:
Great movie, I don't get why its rated so low.

Ender W. gave it a9:
Funny movie. Maybe not as great as the first one, but still a great stoner flick.

Poops M. gave it a7:
If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy this one. You are warned, however, that this films title is very misleading. It should really be called, "Harold and Kumar Try to Get Laid" as most of the movie centers around Harold trying to find his dream woman and Kumar tries to go to Texas to stop his ex from marrying some guy who has 3 small scenes.

Jeff S. gave it a5:
This movie had no direction and very little humor. It's as if they tried to patch together a whole movie out of one or two good humurous moments.

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