A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (18) ***Directed by: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Danny Trejo
Each Harold & Kumar movie has been slicker than the last: even without the 3D, this brightly lit festive joint would be the first in the series to feel suitable for widescreen consumption, rather than merely on DVD with buds of one kind or another. The stoner duo have drifted since 2008’s Escape from Guantanamo Bay – Harold (Cho) into suburban respectability, lovelorn Kumar (Penn) retreating behind a beard and a cloud of bong smoke – but they find themselves thrown together again one Christmas Eve, on a quest to secure the one pine tree that might impress Harold’s forbidding father-in-law (Trejo).
The franchise’s first Obama-era entry, it suffers initially from a broadening of tone, establishing a mildly sitcommy, post-racial universe where once these characters were teamed against more credible prejudices. Ditching their superfluous new sidekicks eventually returns the focus to an eternally sweet bromance, though, and Cho and Penn’s timing remains crisp enough to sell us on some only partially mock-sincere seasonal platitudes. Regular low-brow chuckles dotted with parodic, old-school stereoscopic effects, launching blowback, pointed fingers and other body parts into what will almost certainly be delighted faces.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opens in cinemas nationwide today.
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