This movie has the single best red-band trailer I’ve ever seen, complete with coked up babies, Neil Patrick Harris hitting on babes in heaven, Neil Patrick Harris getting kicked out of heaven by a jealous Jesus, pot smoking babies with the munchies, etc. And yet, the movie itself sucks…Damn you trailers!
What Works: It’s funny because when these movies first got started, Neil Patrick Harris (reinventing himself as a sociopathic, drugged-up, pussy hound) needed them to make a comeback. Now, this movie needs him to give it life. The handful of scenes Neil is involved in–including a hilariously creepy massage/molestation by him–bring this movie to brief life after following around two “wild and crazy” heroes for an hour that no longer hold many surprises. Although I do like that the movie has them on-the-outs at the beginning to give a real sense that time has passed and these characters weren’t just sitting around in-between sequels. Still, this movie needs to be the last one…
What Doesn’t Work: Even some of the best parts of the trailer don’t really work once contextualized by all the crappy jokes around it. Plus, and I’m sorry but this has to be said, Harold and Kumar no longer work as characters. Kumar has now become the world’s most boring–and unlikely–stoner (you never truly feel this guy is capable of creating the anarchy the movie sets out to) and Harold just mostly looks bored by every situation in the movie. There’s a scene with his disapproving Mexican father-in-law late in the movie that seems completely unconvincing. And the new “sidekicks” in the movie (especially Kumar’s) to fill in since the title duo are on the outs really suck…I wish I could think of a more witty term to use, but it’s the most fitting.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Completely dropped the Russian mob plot as it doesn’t work at all and there’s no laughs to be had from it. Also, dropped the Waffle-bot subplot…as a matter of fact, let’s just put a subplot cap on this movie that includes 5 subplots and only lets ONE of the guys get involved in a pregnancy subplot.
My son wants to see this movie but it definitely looks more like his kind of movie than mine