Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
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| Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle | |
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| Directed by | Danny Leiner |
| Produced by | Greg Shapiro |
| Written by | Jon Hurwitz Hayden Schlossberg |
| Starring | Kal Penn John Cho |
| Music by | David Kitay |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | July 30, 2004 |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9 million (est.) |
| Followed by | Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (released in some countries as Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies) is a 2004 stoner comedy film. The plot revolves around the two pot-smoking title characters, who decide to go to the fast food restaurant White Castle after smoking marijuana, only to find themselves embarked on a series of comical misadventures.
The film was written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and directed by Danny Leiner. Starring Kal Penn and John Cho, it also features appearances by Fred Willard, Paula Garcés, Anthony Anderson, Dan Bochart, Ethan Embry, Jamie Kennedy, Bobby Lee, Christopher Meloni, Ryan Reynolds, Shaun Majumder, David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Malin Åkerman and Neil Patrick Harris (as a deranged parody of himself).
The film was fairly well-received by critics, with a 72% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[1] [2]
The $9 million-budget film grossed a mere $18 million in 2,163 theaters in the United States,[3] but then went on to earn more than $60 million in DVD rentals and sales. [4] This limited box office revenue, followed by subsequent success, might be indicative of a future cult film status for the movie.
Tagline: Fast Food. High Times.
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[edit] Plot
The movie begins with entry level investment banker Harold Lee being taken advantage of by two of his coworkers, who pour extra work on him so they can take off for a long weekend. Their cynical rationale is that, because he is Asian, he loves to crunch numbers. Kumar Patel, in the meantime, is interviewing for medical school admission and is passing the interview until he takes a call from Harold, in the course of which he uses vulgarity and overt drug references in the presence of the admissions officer (Fred Willard). He admits that he has no real interest in medical school, despite having a perfect MCAT score, and adds that he only interviews so that his dad will continue to pay for his apartment. This results in him being immediately rejected for admission. Meanwhile Harold has his own problems: he can't make his way out of his parking lot without being ID'd, can't park in front of his apartment building because a group of "extreme sports punks" always park there, and finds out that not only does Kumar trim his pubic hair in Harold's bedroom naked (because Kumar doesn't have a mirror in his own bedroom), but also uses Harold's nose hair scissors to cut his ass hair.
While smoking some marijuana in their Hoboken, New Jersey apartment that evening, they see a TV ad for White Castle and decide to make a trip to get some hamburgers. Finding a White Castle ends up being more difficult than they had imagined. They discover that the White Castle they had planned to visit in New Brunswick has been replaced by the inferior "Burger Shack", but learn that there is a 24 hour White Castle in Cherry Hill.
On their way, Kumar is beginning to "come down" and suggests they stop off at Princeton University and have Harold's friend, Cindy Kim, help them "score". While Harold indulges Cindy and her East Asian Students Club, Kumar manages to buy some overpriced grass from a self-proclaimed "business hippie". Harold and Kumar blow off what they think will be a nerdy, boring party given by Princeton's East Asian Students Club for "some fun" with two promiscuous college girls. The pair discovers, though, that their hot dates are gross and their intellectual friends really know how to party. As they escape, they accidentally drop Kumar's marijuana in a girls' bathroom toilet. Later, Harold is attacked by a raccoon, forcing Kumar to delay the trip to drive him to the hospital. Upon learning that the former does not have rabies, they attempt to pass themselves off as surgeons in the hopes of stealing medical marijuana. Kumar also has a confrontation with his father and brother over his failed med school interview, and he is told that if he doesn't pass this time, he's cut off.
A hideously-deformed, but helpful, tow truck driver later proves to have an unbelievably attractive wife. The tow truck driver tells them it is okay if they have sex with his wife. As they are feeling her body, they are surprised at how it is actually happening. Their excitement when she propositions them, however, is short-lived when it turns out the husband expects to join in. They also run into Neil Patrick Harris (playing an alternative-reality version of himself), who is strung out on ecstasy[5] and hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. Harris plans to use his child star status to get laid. Harold and Kumar later see Harris flying down the road in the car he stole from them while snorting coke off the buttocks of a partially naked stripper. Happening across Harold’s unrequited crush, they discover that she also shares his love of John Hughes’ 1980s Americana films.
While planning to call the police to report Harris' stealing their car, the two encounter a racist cop who fines Harold for jaywalking even though there are no cars on the road, who insults them for their "looking different", and for their names. Kumar instigates an argument that results in Harold being taken to the police station for assaulting the officer (Harold intended to hit Kumar, but Kumar ducked and Harold clocked the officer instead). While there, he meets an African-American professor, who was busted, of course, for being black, and he is told not to be angry at everyone, because the universe will sort itself out. After making a fake 911 call, Kumar breaks Harold out of jail and steal the "business hippie"'s huge bag of marijuana, which had been confiscated by the police, before returning to their on-going quest for fast food nirvana. However, the quest grinds to a screeching halt after Harold falls off a cheetah they ride while high and his laptop (which he had brought with him to finish his work) is destroyed, and now they must return home so he can start over.
After reaching a hot dog joint and having another encounter with the extreme sports punks, Harold decides that he needs to feel the satisfaction in getting what he wants, and he and Kumar steal the punks' truck, which also allows them to uncover the jocks' secret love of soft rock ballads, notably Hold On by Wilson Phillips which Harold & Kumar sing along to. They ditch the car after being spotted by the police and use a hang glider to get to the White Castle nearby. In the end, the duo get their "Sticks and Sliders": 60 burgers, 8 cokes (4 cherry cokes for Harold and 4 "diet" (he kids the clerk) cokes for Kumar) along with 10 orders of fries. They have their car returned by a repentant Harris, who pays for the meal as a peace offering and apology for stealing their car. As they dine on their burgers, Kumar observes that there are many kinds of “burgers” in America, and all he really wants is the right to enjoy them all. As they prepare to leave, they run into Harold's co-workers, and Harold gets revenge on them by telling them to stop giving him their work to do and telling their girlfriends they contracted gonorrhea from a hooker. After this, the duo heads back to their apartments, there Harold finds the girl of his dreams in the elevator and ends up making out with her. Unfortunately, she is leaving for ten days in Amsterdam. They make plans to follow her there so that Harold may continue his pursuit. Besides, Kumar reminds him: "You know what's legal there."
Over the credits, television reporters reveal that the racist cops were all arrested and sued by the black professor for racial discrimination and brutality, and the macho jocks were also charged with vandalism and possession of the marijuana that Harold and Kumar left in their truck. The final scene before the credits run to their conclusion is a "composite drawing" of Harold and Kumar- which in reality is a stick figure drawing of a stereotypical Sikh man in a turban and a squinting Asian man.
[edit] Cast and characters
- John Cho as Harold Lee: A young Korean-American man working at his first job in investment banking.
- Kal Penn as Kumar Patel: A second generation Indian-American whose family assumes he will become a doctor like his father and brother, though he does not want to.
- Paula Garces as Maria Quesa Dilla: Harold and Kumar's beautiful neighbor, on whom Harold has a massive crush.
- Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris: A stranger, the former star of "Doogie Howser, M.D.", whom Harold and Kumar pick up hitchhiking, but who ends up stealing their car.
[edit] DVD and Blu-ray release
The film was released in a theatrical and Unrated edition DVD on January 4, 2005 and was re-released again on April 1, 2008 in an "Extreme Unrated" edition remastered in time for the new sequel, which opened in theatres worldwide April 25, 2008. The film will be releasd on Blu-Ray disc on July 29th, 2008.
[edit] Sequel
The movie was followed by Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which revolved around Harold and Kumar trying to get to Amsterdam to find the girl of Harold's dreams.
[edit] References
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
- ^ Harold and Kumar official site. Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=haroldandkumar.htm
- ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20190469,00.html
- ^ Internet Movie Database, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle - Memorable Quotes". Accessed 11 December, 2007.
[edit] External links
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