A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas: Review By Julian Roman

Harold and Kumar (John Cho, Kal Penn) return to theaters with a much funnier than expected third installment, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. This film delivers the raunchiness, poor taste, and perversity other films, like the crap Hangover 2; utterly failed to deliver. This time around Harold and Maria (Paula Garces) are married, living an upscale life in the suburbs. Between attempts to get her pregnant, Harold does his best to impress her imposing father (Danny Trejo), who for reasons I won't reveal here, really loves Christmas trees. Kumar has been dumped by his girlfriend, and Harold, for being an immature stoner. An expected present propels the two buddies, their new friends, old favorites, and yes...the mythical NPH, into an insane quest with all kinds of lurid surprises.

I laughed my ass into the ground watching this movie. Do yourself a favor and avoid all spoilers of this movie. Not only is the story quite clever, the character work is spot on. The filmmakers actually took some time and effort to develop a rather involved plot. The stoner buddies have gone their separate ways. But when the s**t hits the fan, who else to save the day than your best reefer smoking compadre. There's great chemistry that exists between John Cho and Kal Penn. They're the modern day versions of Cheech and Chong, but seem to have a bit more heart. The audience relates to them and are very engaged when the hijinks begin.

3D has become so passe and gimmicky. I was concerned there wasn't much that could be done here that would be fresh. Boy did I call that wrong. They push the lewdness to new 3D heights here. Once again, spoiler free, trust me that you will not be disappointed by some of the crazy stunts pulled here. Maybe too much dudity for my taste, but humorous enough for the shock value.

While Harold and Kumar are the stars, the ensemble work has to be given some credit. These films work well because of the great ancillary cast. Rosenberg and Goldstein (Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz) are back at the White Castle, but the glory of greatness has to be heaped on Neil Patrick Harris as NPH. Turns out his whole gay spiel is just a twisted scam to lure more innocent girls into his den of depravity. But wasn't NPH shot and killed by angry whor*s in the last installment? Let's just say that the afterlife cannot cage the beast that is NPH.

Harold and Kumar is gleefully offensive to all. They take all sacred cows and barbeque them to a crisp. No one who isn't into stoner comedies, overly religious, or especially concerned parents, has any business seeing this movie. However, if you want to risk a possible seizure from laughing too hard, then race to the theater this weekend. I guarantee you'll never look at babies or waffles the same way again.