So much has changed since Harold and Kumar escaped from Guantanamo Bay. Harold (John Cho) landed the role of Sulu in J. J. Abrams' acclaimed Star Trek reboot (a character he will revisit in 2013). Kumar (Kal Penn), having smoked weed with George W. Bush in Escape From Guantanamo Bay, became an Associate Director for the Obama administration. And Neil Patrick Harris, whilst furthering his womanising image as the philandering Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, publicly came out and announced his engagement to David Burtka.
Sadly, what has also changed for the modern-day Cheech and Chong, is the standard of jokes, scenarios and secondary characters.
Gone are the punctuated, episodic scenes which defined the first two films and saw the duo jump from situations as memorable as racing a cheetah through the woods, attending a bottomless party, hitching a ride with the boil-covered Freakshow, and sharing a bed with a red-neck cyclops-baby. In their latest adventure, Roldy and Kumar get tied-up by Russian gangsters, hallucinate claymation-style, and inadvertently become dancers in a camp stage-show, but each new scenario seems more tired than the last, and lacks the originality of both predecessors.
Gone are the comical-yet-convincing minor characters like the racist Homeland Security Agent (Rob Corddry), the infatuated Male Nurse (Ryan Reynolds), and the helpless Interpreter (Ed Helms). Questionably weaker ones replace these: Kumar's new-BFF, Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld), overstays his welcome, as does Harold's father-in-law (an unexpectedly pedestrian Danny Trejo), and wimpish friend (Thomas Lennon). Sadly, even returning characters, such as bickering Jewish-stoners Rosenberg and Goldstein don't bring the laughs like they once did.
The movie picks up a few years after the duo escaped Guantanamo. A bearded Kumar ("Like Ryan Gosling in The Notebook") has been dumped by Vanessa, and Harold, now sober, has settled down with Maria. Having not seen each other in years, the two are reunited by a mysterious package, which sets in motion a grand scheme to find the perfect Christmas tree ("Koreans have killed his mother and now his tree. Christmas is ruined").
While Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg return as writers, the relatively unknown Todd Strauss-Schulson directed this instalment of the current trilogy. The film doesn't look quite as appealing or inventive as previous entries, and the exploitive 3D hampers the whole affair and slows down the story.
Neil Patrick Harris appears after a particularly dull period, instantly drawing laughs as the resurrected, crack-addled, and now publicly 'gay' NPH that everyone has come to know and love. If only he were in it for longer.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is generating a multitude of positive reviews and looks set to become their most successful outing to date. However, as a big fan I was surprised that 3D Christmas did not build upon its former, as Escape From Guantanamo Bay did with Get The Munchies. Aside from a few moments of genuine hilarity, this was not the sharp, laugh-a-minute writing that helped the first two transcend the hapless stoner-movie genre. Scenes are far too rambling and unfocused, losing all energy as a result.
It might be time for the boys to shut their bong-holes.
