3 stars (out of four)
In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Santa smokes from a bong, a claymation penis leaps
off the screen and an infant tries every party drug your D.A.R.E. instructor
warned you about, mercifully not all in the same scene. These are hardly the
funniest moments in the movie nor are they even the most ridiculous, which
should say something about the spectrum of insanity on display here. AVH&K3DC is ruder, cruder and in general escalates the crazy
compared to the previous two installments of the stoner buddy comedy franchise.
To say that the film was made to seen in a specific state of mind goes without
saying, but the film, in its giddy willingness to do anything and everything
for a laugh, gives off an intoxicating effect all its own. Just watching the
movie gives you a sort of contact high.
Of course, none of the film’s THC-induced antics would work
were they not funny. And AVH&K3DC is
very funny. Its breakneck pace is a major asset to its success because no gag
runs the risk of overstaying its welcome. Didn’t think that perverse twist on a
classic scene from A Christmas Story
was all that funny? Maybe you thought that bit about nuns crossed the line? Not
to worry. That was already two jokes ago and the movie is onto something new.
And unlike a lot of comedies that offer equivalent jpm (jokes per minute), the
hit-to-miss ratio here is high in favor of laughter.
The manic pacing and style of the movie works also because
the plot is pushed so far into the realm of the absurd that there is no chance
anything will be taken too seriously. Writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden
Schlossberg (who have written all three films) have wisely upped the stakes
with each passing movie (from a late-night trip to White Castle to a brush-up
with the government in Guantanamo Bay to this) and have successfully kept the
franchise fresh rather than retreading familiar material.
What’s truly astonishing though is how our hazy heroes,
Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn), remain grounded in reality even as the
world around them careens out of control. There are some genuinely touching
moments between the two (usually offset by a gross-out gag to avoid
sentimentality) and the strength of their friendship lies at the heart of these
films.
As is typical for a Harold & Kumar film, there is also a dash of social commentary,
though this outing’s racial-political consciousness is far more muted than
before. The movie pokes fun at racial stereotypes and the casual prejudices
people harbor in modern-day America but these concerns do not pervade the
film’s humor, which mostly prefers to indulge in the raunchy and juvenile. Of
the film’s women I will not elaborate other than to say that they are merely
marginalized rather than degraded; take that for what it’s worth. AVH&K3DC is smarter than your average male-dominated
raunchfest but isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s still very much in love
with its lowbrow self.
The use of 3D is a silly gimmick but in a way (and bear with
me for a moment here) is kind of groundbreaking. The effect, often toted as an
immersive technology is self-consciously acknowledged in both the dialogue and
its actual execution. In one scene, for example, a traffic cone is hurled
toward us only to crash against the camera and crack the lens. The movie calls
attention to the artifice of 3D and then uses that as a tool to further its
self-referential nature.
The Harold & Kumar
franchise continues to reshape itself in new and unexpected ways and if there
is a fourth film (Neil Patrick Harris, again playing a hilarious Bizarro
version of himself, flat out announces in this film that there will be a
fourth) there may need to be a more substantial story, but this episode should
not disappoint fans of the previous two. It is a wild and reckless blur of a
movie that defies my better judgment and admittedly made me a laugh a whole
lot. It understands the importance of brevity, doesn’t try too hard and is a
wholly satisfying, smoky affair.
- Steve Avigliano, 11/9/11
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