Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay 2008

A.O. Scott, New York Times: [The movie's] idiocy serves the cause of good sense and intelligence. And no, I'm not smoking anything. Read more

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: Penn and Cho's stoner slapstick will doubtless please their obsessive fans. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The jokes all revolve around weed, stereotypes, and Neil Patrick Harris; the stereotype stuff is by far the funniest. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: It's as if the filmmakers were doing something that impaired their concentration and made them lose focus on something they started. Read more

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Any comedy zany enough to include a veiled, left-field reference to Clara's Heart has something going for it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: You find yourself smiling at some of the bits, wincing through many, many others, and ultimately wondering if the pacing would've improved had either H or K developed a terrible cocaine habit. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: As is so often the case with sequels, this one feels like a retread, albeit on a bigger scale. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: The film is far from an intelligent commentary on America's race relations...but at a time when race is at the forefront of the American discussion, it presents the topic in a way at which we can laugh. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A fitfully funny if somewhat less excellent sequel. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, L.A. Weekly: As occasionally entertaining as it can be, Guantanamo Bay is essentially a bawdier -- but, sadly, dumber -- version of its precursor. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a loosely strung-together collection of sex, race, and stoner jokes, is, by any rational standard, a terrible movie, yet I kept laughing at it, and I came out of the theatre in a good mood. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The whole film feels easily distracted and apt to laugh at anything. But that's okay. So is its target audience. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: While Penn and Cho remain casually cool (they're hipper than the fools who spout bigoted cliches), the movie forgets to stay true to their characters or to itself. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: I didn't laugh anywhere near as much at this far less fresh sequel - which is broader, more vulgar, more scattershot, more overtly political and a lot less funny than it sounds on paper. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: In all its mock outrage and its daring shots at hypocrisy, bigotry and the government, Harold & Kumar, the characters and the movie, lose their subversive innocence. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Offers a mix of nasty toilet jokes and sex gags, but the gratuitous nudity (male and female) and crazy cannabis-ness are there to serve a greater good: to mock social and political hypocrisy, a culture steeped in prejudice and pretense. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's sporadically enjoyable in a silly, mindless way and it's hard not to laugh at least a few time while awash in all the bad taste. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay embraces America's capacity for decency and kindness. The possibility that we could actually be that great country isn't just a pipe dream. Only sometimes you need a pipe to truly believe in it. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The film is carried by its charismatic stars, John Cho as Harold and Kal Penn as Kumar. Kumar plays Laurel to Harold's Hardy, continually getting the pair into messes. Cho is a marvel at displaying exasperation, his face contorting into a frown. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Most of the wannabe outrageous racial humor is too shallow to constitute real satire. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With its intoxicating blend of frat boy humor and sociological satire, Escape From Guantanamo Bay is the comedy of the year so far. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is no political tract, but it can be surprisingly bold. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This is one of those rare pictures that can gross you out and make you think at one and the same time. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Harold and Kumar are pothead patriots in the first feel-good torture film. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A guilty pleasure that retains the anarchic charms of the original. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: In its own wacky way, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is one of the ballsiest comedies to come out of Hollywood in a long time. No kidding. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Unfortunately, nothing in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo is funnier than its title. Read more