Sometimes I think about society. I think about what drives the film industry to churn out material that reaches to the lowest denominator. Is society asking for this or has the industry dumbed down the public? These are the kinds of questions that go through my head after viewing a film such as Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
The plot focuses on the title characters, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn). After having presumingly reached success in making their way to White Castle; the duo makes plans for Amsterdam. Well as fate would have it, Kumar bumps into his ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Daneel Harris) at the airport and learns of her imminent wedding. Shortly later, Kumar makes asinine use of a drug paraphernalia invention aboard a plane. This sets the passengers into a panic and both protagonists are whisked away to Guantanamo Bay. Strangely enough, they spend all of five minutes in the joint. The rest of the movie is about their run from the law, ploy to stop Vanessa’s wedding, and search for a joint.
The problem with the film is that it isn’t funny. It isn’t fun, consists of poor taste, and takes the easiest cheap shots it can. I tend to find that humor in movies occurs where you least expect it; as though the jokes were an added bonus to a successful narrative. If I’m actually expecting a joke, and it’s no good, it’s easier to be displeased. Such is the case here. As the duo travels, they encounter characters meant to be humorous; only they are not. The entire film plays on stereotype after stereotype. Since everyone in the audience already knows of these ethnocentric portrayals, the jokes played on them are painfully predictable. The only smile I cracked was over a line brought forth by a discussion on donuts.
It troubles me that a film can mange to not only insult your intelligence with shallow attempts at humor, but degrade women at every possible opportunity. The females depicted are lacking in character, drive, sense, and are largely served up as eye-candy. Kumar’s main squeeze is even portrayed as a drug addict.
The success of the Harold and Kumar box office results hinges on the inclusion of drugs. It goes to show that to attract the youth, all you need is consistent drug usage. The key late-teens demographic is capable of taking in excessive sums of horrible cinema, all for the sake of seeing some drug usage. I’d wager that most of the youth who drive the market for such films, are not actually drug users; maybe seeing it on the screen in some form gives them their fix. I highly doubt that directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg made this film with the intention of serving society. *
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