A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

Rating: 4/5

You've gotta love this series. Each Harold & Kumar movie is very funny, relevant, and of course offensive. Each installment also includes developed and memorable characters with real arcs, great jokes, and the greatness of Neil Patrick Harris. That said, it's hard for comedy sequels to stay funny, as evidenced by Hangover 2 and the Scary Movie sequels. Lucky for us, the series isn't done yet, and it's still damn funny.

Around three years or so after their escape from Guantanamo, Harold (John Cho) is married and Kumar (Kal Penn) is perpetually stoned. The two meet again when Kumar drops a mysterious package at Harold's house. Harold, who is too worried about pleasing his father-in-law (Danny Trejo), is happy to see his friend, until Kumar burns down Trejo's home-grown christmas tree. Now the two have until midnight mass is over to find a new fern. And as usual, hijinks ensue.

There's something about stoner comedies that I find inherently hilarious. Unless the joke is too dumb (I'm looking at you Your Highness), I will laugh. Boy howdy will I laugh, and this movie made me laugh quite a bit. The jokes and gag are of course all sexual, drug-related, or violent, but most of them work very well. As usual Neil Patrick Harris steals the show, but everyone does a great job. The script has a good pace, and the few serious moments are genuine and well done.

See, now I don't have much more to talk about. It's just hard to review good comedies. Ok, I guess I can talk about how some moments are just stupid and that some jokes rely too much on being raunchy and/or gross, but none of that really matters. A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas is an extremely solid and very funny comedy that's worth seeing.

I honestly hope they make a fourth entry in this series. For me, I think the characters (especially NPH) won't stop being funny and I'll always enjoy them in a primal kind of way. Even though I don't think the series will ever return to the heights of the second movie, I have faith that I'll continue to laugh at additional installments. Until then, I can just enjoy the current one, and so should you.