Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
In the upcoming New Line Cinema film “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” our favorite Asian American buddies played by stars John Cho and Kal Penn are back for more adventure with even higher stakes than in 2004’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.”
Although four of our years have passed between these films, it’s only been a couple hours since Harold and Kumar finally got to dive into those delectable White Castle burgers. But their next saga is only beginning in the new sequel!
In the upcoming New Line Cinema film “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” our favorite Asian American buddies played by stars John Cho and Kal Penn are back for more adventure with even higher stakes than in 2004’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.”
Although four of our years have passed between these films, it’s only been a couple hours since Harold and Kumar finally got to dive into those delectable White Castle burgers. But their next saga is only beginning in the new sequel!
What starts out as Harold’s bold attempt to woo the lovely Latina, Maria (played by Paula Garces of FX’s “The Shield”), on an airplane trip to Amsterdam with the stubbornly reckless and fun-loving Kumar, leads to where else? The United States’ terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba!
The writers of the first movie, Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz, have also written the sequel, but this time they were able to take over the franchise reigns and direct the movie. This lends to richer chemistry on-screen for the actors, since they could more directly bounce their own ideas off the writers-directors.
There’s more Asian Americans on TV, but also the quality of stuff to me isn’t where it should be. I don’t care if every one-line nurse, doctor, receptionist, salesperson role is filled with Asian Americans, it doesn’t have the impact that a series regular has, or you know a series regular that speaks English.
Hayden and Jon even shed profound light on this uproaring stoner flick with their decision to openly poke fun at the state of America’s post-9/11 culture of fear while celebrating the love of America that Harold and Kumar both share. “It was one of those things when you’re doing a Stoner comedy you don’t usually get that kind of response. So when we were working on the sequel we made it a point to not only write a comedy that would, you know, compete with the comedy in the first movie and to make something that would make a broad audience laugh out loud, but also would have that social relevance that can connect to an audience. I think that if we just made a sequel that was really funny and had great Neil Patrick Harris unicorn jokes, but didn’t have that second layer then people would just be saying, “yeah, it’s funny but it doesn’t have that thing from the first movie.” And so the Guantanamo Bay angle I think in many ways helps satisfy that.”
Former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry , playing “Homeland Security Head- Ron Fox’ in “… Guantanamo Bay,” always ready with his sardonically signature one-liners, sheds more light on the heightened social commentary inherent in this Harold and Kumar sequel when he comments on what he learned from fellow stars John Cho and Kal Penn, “What cultural backgrounds are you talking about? (They’re) from Cleveland. They’re in yellow and brown face. I totally thought you guys knew that. Oh, no this movie is really a racist movie. Those are the two whitest actors in the world.”
Fresh off his work as the iconic Asian-American starship helmsman Hikaru Sulu in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” due to come out in May 2009, star John Cho continues to evolve our “Harold’ in “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.”
And in this sequel, both Harold and Kumar show that they can be “real American men,” virile, assertive. When asked how this film portrays positively Asian American men, particularly in helping Hollywood to break past decades of emasculation of Asian American men, John Cho said, “I felt there’s an implicit mandate that when making a sequel, you have to ramp up everything. And so we just went through the categories and it seemed like we just ramped up every single category. So there’s more racial and political jokes. We upped-the-anty on that and the sex and the nudity and everything. We just felt like we have to do everything up, dress it more.”
In the four years between the two “Harold and Kumar” films, the landscape of Asian American casting in Hollywood has improved, although there continues to be much room for growth. And more importantly, the quality, significance, depth, and accuracy of these portrayals still have a ways to go. The first “Harold and Kumar” film helped this process, and here’s to the sequel only inspiring Hollywood to cast more Asian American actors in more quality roles! John Cho “feels better. But having said that it’s not where it should be either. There’s more Asian Americans on TV, but also the quality of stuff to me isn’t where it should be. I don’t care if every one-line nurse, doctor, receptionist, salesperson role is filled with Asian Americans, it doesn’t have the impact that a series regular has, or you know a series regular that speaks English. A normal [American] person. So you have to weight things like that.”
John reveals both his respect for Asian American support for the “Harold and Kumar” films, as well as his fear of our perspectives on the films. It is not just a matter of how these films are received by mainstream Hollywood, but how our own various Asian American communities are influenced by and influence them. “I would say that the thing that feels most like a burden from doing Harold is worrying about what Asians think?… But it’s (Asian) people that like the movie who come up to me the most. But you know it’s something that I always fret over whenever I take any role. I try to say no to things that I feel are not going to be any good for Asians. But even then having said that, comedy is particularly tough because you want to be able to make fun of race and you don’t want to exclude yourself from the equation, either, [that is to say] your own race. So you want to make yourself vulnerable, but are you crossing the line? And you’re always doing this little dance. So I worry. I fret about it.”
John’s co-star and close personal friend, Kal Penn, giver of life to our “Kumar’ (who this time has his own love interest in the form of sexy ex-girlfriend Vanessa played by Danneel Harris), continues to develop his eclectic career. Kal was unavailable for interviews at this “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” press day, at the Four Seasons Hotel LA @ Beverly Hills, due to his current commitments for the acclaimed FOX TV show “House.”
These days, Kal also guest teaches a course entitled “Images of Asian Americans in the Media” at the Ivy League school Penn in Philadelphia and is highly active in the Barack Obama presidential campaign. And when he isn’t busy (whenever that is!), Kal pursues a Graduate Certificate in International Security at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Zoikes!
And we would be remissed if we failed to mention that Neil Patrick Harris reprises his iconic alter-ego “Neil Patrick Harris” in this sequel. “N.P.H.” as that character is affectionately and now-commonly referred to as, inspired the casting of Neil Patrick Harris in the popular CBS series “How I Met Your Mother,” as the hyper-heterosexual male Barney. And after watching the sequel, you will need to ask yourself, “What Would N.P.H. Do?”
When you go to your local theaters starting Friday April 25th for “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”, make sure to stay all the way through the film’s closing credits. Not to give away any spoilers, but you wouldn’t want to miss a particularly hilarious and key plot development in the greater Harold and Kumar saga!
Do Harold and Kumar get their dream women? Do Harold and Kumar make it to Amsterdam? Make sure to check out “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” to find out!