Review – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2011):  The original Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle scored not only with its decision to focus on characters normally relegated to the comedy sidelines, but also with its delivery, wobbling from gross-out to absurdism with an organic late night randomness. The guys are still present in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, but the timing feels a little off, frustratingly lurching between highs and lows. Still, if one gag doesn’t grab you, just wait a minute. Kicking off with a timely 99% joke, the story finds once inseparable buds Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) now gone their different ways, until a chance reunion involving a Christmas tree brings back the haze. Bad taste abounds, including an amped up toddler, naughty Claymation, and a couple of anatomic close-ups that make the zipper scene in There’s Something About Mary look like a Puritan woodcut. Throughout, director Todd Strauss-Schulson gleefully makes hay with the 3D format, throwing every conceivable solid, liquid and gas out into the audience, while also making room for a few memorable bits of out-and-out strangeness. (The waffle-making robot deserves a trilogy of his own.) That said, the inspired bits do have to compete with more than a few dead spots, including a subplot involving Ukrainian gangsters that lurches right into a wall. Thankfully, the performers manage to keep things buzzing. While Cho and Penn still bring the lived-in funny, the series’ Trump card remains Neil Patrick Harris, who plays up his image with a debauched gusto that’s wondrous to behold. While this installment delivers enough laughs to justify a viewing, NPH’s outtakes could make for a perennial Holiday classic.  (originally published at Amazon.com)