What appears at first glance to be merely a one-and-a-half-hour
commercial for White Castle hamburgers is a funny, surprising road
trip movie, with both an external and an internal journey taken by the
main characters. It’s also damned funny.

Spoilers follow!

Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are a couple of stoners who
have graduated college in the not-too-distant past. Harold works at an
investment banking firm, while Kumar interviews for a place at medical
school. Neither of them appears to have the backbone to stand up to
anyone. After a particularly intense bout of smoking, they decide to
go get some food, which becomes an epic quest for satisfaction.

Instead of the labors of Hercules, Harold and Kumar endure torment at
the hands of men, women, police, and Doogie Howser. After finding the
White Castle around the corner closed, they must find
another. We meet Harold’s love interest, a girl named Maria to whom
he has never spoken. Harold has imaginary encounters with Maria that
turn out well, but he can’t work up the courage to talk to her in real
life. Harold lives with the fear that he will never talk to Maria and
will be doomed to become the Korean stereotype shown in a visit to
Harold’s ersatz girlfriend at Princeton.

Kumar encounters his father
after a raccoon attacks Harold and they stop at the hospital where we learn
that Kumar has avoided following in the doctor-footsteps of his father and brother.
Skate-punks torment both of them on numerous
occasions. Getting some advice from a black man beat up for nothing
and thrown in jail, Harold makes a discovery about the universe and
himself. Before the end, both Harold and Kumar grow as human beings,
with Harold reaching down for inner strength, and Kumar realizing his
true desires, albeit amid dick jokes, fart jokes, and plenty of potty
humor.

Both of the leads give excellent comedic performances, with Cho as the
uptight straight man and Penn as his goof-off friend. Elements of the
completely ridiculous intrude, making some of the sequences a bit hard
to watch. On the lesser side of ridiculous – the land of the
improbable – the incongruous sight of watching Neil Patrick Harris hump
a car seat and snort coke off a girl’s bum almost made me pass out
from lack of oxygen. If nothing else, this movie serves as a warning
to never pick up a hitchhiker, even if it is Doogie Howser. [Chelle Lee]