Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

America’s favorite buds, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel, return to the big screen in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

While the 2004 film Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies charted the pair’s exploits on a hilariously arduous journey to a White Castle restaurant in New Jersey, writers/directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (screenwriters of the original film) use a grander canvas for Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

We pick up with Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) right where we left them – in their apartment after they’ve successfully completed their White Castle quest. It’s only an hour or two later, and the guys are preparing for an epic adventure to Amsterdam so that Harold can win the heart of his crush, Maria.

At the airport, Kumar runs into his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa (Danneel Harris), and he’s shocked to discover she’s about to get married.

Before they even get on the plane, Kumar threatens to botch the mission by mixing it up with airport security personnel, insisting on protesting a random search. Though they do make it onto the plane, Kumar, as fans of the first film won’t be surprised or disappointed to find out, eventually succeeds in getting them into more trouble than they bargained for. Unable to wait six hours to get to Amsterdam, Kumar takes a home-made “smokeless bong” into the airplane bathroom. Turbulence strikes, the bathroom door swings open, the bong’s mistaken for a bomb, and the guys are mistaken for terrorists.

The plane is turned around and the guys are detained in Guantanamo Bay. If you don’t immediately connect the idea of laughter with the idea of Gitmo, get ready for Hurwitz and Schlossberg’s treatment of it.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay offers all the things audiences loved about Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies, only bigger and better. Echoing Harold’s escape from jail in Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies, this time both guys escape detention in Guantanamo Bay. The quests Harold and Kumar undertake in each film are similarly proportional. In Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies, Harold and Kumar endured an endless slew of obstacles in search of the perfect remedy for their case of the munchies. In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, they undertake an even more obstacle-laden journey, but instead of a snack, they’re seeking to clear their names of the charges that they’re terrorists and secure their freedom.

Their plan for accomplishing this involves a journey from Guantanamo Bay to Miami to Texas, to Vanessa’s wedding to seek help from her fiancé, a politically connected friend of Harold’s with ties to one of America’s most powerful and prominent political families. It’s an epic journey not easily carried out, and along the way they encounter the Ku Klux Klan, an inbred Cyclops baby, and – once again – Neil Patrick Harris.

Hot on their heels is Deputy Chief of Homeland Security Ron Fox (Rob Corddry), for whom simply hearing Harold and Kumar are suspected terrorists is enough to convict and imprison them.

Still, with all of what’s at stake, the irrepressible Kumar is firm in his commitment to enjoying whatever journey he’s on. Between this proclivity and his desire to break up the wedding of Vanessa, who he realizes is the one that got away, even though he dumped her for fear of things getting to serious, Kumar once again pushes the limits of Harold’s friendship, patience and sanity. But whatever doesn’t kill their friendship will make it stronger.

John Cho (American Pie trilogy, the upcoming Star Trek) and Kal Penn (The Namesake, TV’s “House”) lead an accomplished cast that is peppered with a slew of hilarious cameos, including some recurring cast members from Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies.