Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
There have been lots of movies dealing with quests but none seem so close to our lives than this quest for a late-night snack. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are done for the day after a long day of work for Harold and another intentional dive in a medical school interview for Kumar. After getting high, they're hungry and easily suggestible. With a timely commercial from White Castle, their meal is set. But with the restaurant a long journey away, the weirdest things begin to happen. A fight with a raccoon. Dealing with college students and weirdos. Having their car stolen. Ending up in jail. Etc. But when the night is over, life lessons are learned and quite ironically, getting high leads to better things.

It's dumb. It's idiotic. It's far-fetched. But you know what? It's hilarious. Yes, the trademarks of a teen comedy are there: the gross-out jokes, the drug use, and the sex, all done with the usual comic effect. But what makes this comedy work better than the others is the team of Cho and Penn who take the Asian stereotypes in stride and manage to produce consistent laughs throughout the course of the film. At times though, the randomness of a few jokes and scenes knock the wind out of the movie, but director Danny Leiner (who also directed Dude, Where's My Car?) eventually re-captures the comedic rhythm of the film with the help of a few cameos including a freaky Christopher Meloni and a freaky (in a different way) Neil Patrick Harris, who can't escape his Doogie Howser persona. In the end, you may not be craving White Castle, but you just might be hungry for a sequel. 3 stars