Harold & Kumar | |
---|---|
Directed by |
Danny Leiner (1) Jon Hurwitz (2) Hayden Schlossberg (2) Todd Strauss-Schulson (3) |
Produced by | Greg Shapiro |
Written by | Jon Hurwitz Hayden Schlossberg |
Starring |
John Cho Kal Penn Neil Patrick Harris |
Music by |
David Kitay George S. Clinton William Ross |
Cinematography | Bruce Douglas Johnson Daryn Okada Michael Barrett |
Edited by |
Jeff Betancourt Jeff Freeman Eric Kissack |
Distributed by |
New Line Cinema Warner Bros. |
Release date
|
2004–2011 |
Running time
|
300 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $40 million |
Box office | $102.8 million |
Harold & Kumar is the name for a series of American stoner comedy films starring John Cho (Harold) and Kal Penn (Kumar). The first film, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, was released on July 30, 2004, by New Line Cinema and spawned a sequel titled Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, released four years later. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the third installment of the series, opened nationwide in the U.S. on November 4, 2011.
The series has been a financial success. The three films, produced on a total budget of US$40 million, grossed $102.8 million worldwide. In addition to their box office grosses, the films were extremely successful on home video. The series has been released on both Blu-ray and DVD.
Harold Lee and Kumar Patel are two Asian-American (Korean and Indian) stoners who get the munchies and embark on a quest throughout New Jersey for White Castle burgers after seeing them advertised on TV. On their way they encounter many obstacles, including a gang of extreme sports punks, a raccoon with an attitude, a group of Asian nerds, a racist police department, a cheetah that has escaped from a zoo, and an out-of-control Neil Patrick Harris.
Following the events of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel fly to Amsterdam so Harold can pursue a budding romance with his vacationing neighbor. The pair run into Vanessa, Kumar's ex-girlfriend, and her fiancé Colton, another old college buddy who helped Harold with getting a job at Brewster-Keagan, at the airport. During the plane flight, an elderly woman sees Kumar lighting a hand-crafted smokeless bong, who thinks that it is a bomb, and screams "Terrorist!". After a confusion of the words "bong" and "bomb", two undercover air marshals tackle Kumar, who accidentally drops the bong on the floor, breaking it and releasing what another passenger thinks is "Poison gas!". Harold and Kumar are detained by Ron Fox, a racist Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, in Washington, D.C., who then sends them to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. But just as they are about to eat a "cockmeat sandwich", the neighboring prisoners assault the guards and they are able to escape back to the United States. They meet with their college friend, Raza, who arranges a car for them to travel to Texas in search of Colton, a member of a family who has connections with political officials. On the way to Texas, they encounter various people from an inbred trailer home family to the Ku Klux Klan to Neil Patrick Harris.