Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Here's the key to good 'n stupid lowbrow comedy: if you have a thin but serviceable premise to build cheap, vulgar, tasteless, but sidesplitting dumb gags on, don't slap together some insipid story clogged with clichés to prop it up--just run with what you've got. Be proudly, shamelessly, flippantly stupid, like this flick, in which two recent-grad, odd-couple roommates (effortlessly droll and every-dude charismatic John Cho and Kal Penn) don't discover anything about themselves, never see any "bigger picture," and don't grow up at all. Nope, Harold and Kumar just get stoned out of their gourds on a Friday night, develop the munchies for those famous square hamburgers (from the titular eastern-U.S. fast food joint), and spend the rest of the picture having preposterous misadventures while hunting for the nearest franchise location. Still, it's worth noting that these two buddies would be nothing but token minorities in any other Hollywood fratboy comedy (Cho is Korean, Penn is Indian), and their friendship is better developed than any part of the plot. Recommended. [Note: Available in either “unrated” or “R”-rated versions, DVD extras include humorous menu commentary by costars John Cho and Kal Penn, audio commentaries (the first by director Danny Leiner, Cho, and Penn; the second by writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and the third “Extreme” commentary by “Extreme Sports Punk #1” Danny Bochart), the 12-minute featurette “John Cho and Kal Penn: The Backseat Interview with Bobby Lee,” the 11-minute facetious sound effects featurette “The Art of the Fart,” eight “Cast and Crew Drive-Thru Bites” interview segments, a 10-minute featurette on “A Trip to the Land of Burgers” sequence, nine deleted/alternate scenes (including outtakes) with optional commentary by Cho, Penn, and Leiner (13 min.), the music video “Yeah (Dream of Me)” by All Too Much, and trailers. Bottom line: an appropriately fun and raunchy extras package for a fun and raunchy film.] (R. Blackwelder) [Blu-ray Review—Sept. 2, 2008—New Line, 88 min., unrated, $28.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2004's Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (Extreme Unrated) sports a great transfer with 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The bonus features on this release are almost identical to those on the DVD release, including humorous menu commentary by costars John Cho and Kal Penn, audio commentaries (the first by director Danny Leiner, Cho, and Penn; the second by writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg; and the third “Extreme” commentary by “Extreme Sports Punk #1” Danny Bochart), the 12-minute featurette “John Cho and Kal Penn: The Backseat Interview with Bobby Lee,” the 11-minute facetious sound effects featurette “The Art of the Fart,” eight “Cast and Crew Drive-Thru Bites” interview segments, a 10-minute featurette on “A Trip to the Land of Burgers” sequence, nine deleted/alternate scenes (including outtakes) with optional commentary by Cho, Penn, and Leiner (13 min.), the music video “Yeah (Dream of Me)” by All Too Much, and trailers. New to the Blu-ray release are “John Cho & Kal Penn's Induction Into the White Castle Craver's Hall of Fame” promotional segment, a sneak peek at Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a contemporary cult classic comedy looks good in Blu.]