OPENS SEPTEMBER 17, CERT 15, 87 MINS
Harold And Kumar (John Cho and Kal Penn) falls into the elusive ‘not as dumb as it looks’ sub-category of American gross-out comedies (see also the original American Pie). On the one hand, it’s got two English girls having a defecating competition and Neil Patrick Harris (aka Doogie Howser) snorting coke off a girl’s ass in a moving car. On the other, it offers a spliffed-up riff on that corny American ideal, the pursuit of happiness, even if that means nothing more than frying your brain with the finest weed and then pigging out on greasy burgers?our heroes’ ultimate goal. Who’d have thought something so smart could come from the director of Dude, Where’s My Car?
Admittedly, Cheech and Chong were up to similar high jinks 25 years ago, but the classic inebriated double-act gimmick is smartly updated by making the leads just very unlucky rather than stupid. And, what’s more, there’s not a shred of ‘just say no’ preachiness. Sublime.