I went and saw this on Monday 8-2-04.
(http://movies.apple.com/trailers/newline/harold_and_kumar/images/index_01.jpg)
(Sorry, I couldn't find a smaller, more readily available picture.)
Wow!
This actually turned out to be a fantastic film!
It is a truly hilarious story about two stoners who get a fixation for White Castle and go on a crazy roadtrip having one outrageous experience after another..
Trust me, the movie is better than it sounds.
You might have heard that this was done by the same guy that directed "Dude, Where's My Car?" but do not be dissuaded by that information.
Director Danny Leiner has obviously figured out what a really funny movie is and has created this new superior film.
If you didn't know, White Castle is a burger chain here in the North and Midwest U.S.A. and yes, I have eaten at one in Chicago.
We have them here in Iowa but the nearest one is over 100 miles away.
Do I like White Castle?
Yes & no.
The burgers do have an original taste that I've never tasted anywhere else...Not great, but not bad either.
(http://whitecastle.com/_assets/images/food/menu/cheeseburger_lg.jpg)
(they like to load onions on their burgers and I'm not too fond of onions)
And don't buy the boxed burgers at your local grocery store...they're horrible. (Wal Mart carries them in the frozen section)
Go to the actual restaurant and get 'em.
(http://www.99w.com/evilsam/ff/whitecastle.jpg)
Anyway, if you're looking for a good laugh some evening soon, take the girlfriend or wife to go see this.
You won't regret it!
WWW.HAROLDANDKUMAR.COM (http:/haroldandkumar.com)
Post Edited (08-05-04 02:28)
I was going to ask why anyone would want to go to White Castle. I got some in St. Louis once and wasn't impressed.
I've seen the trailer on tv and it does look like a real hoot, but this is one where I'll wait for the rental..
Ash,
I've been looking forward to this film for awhile. Looks funny as hell.
As for White Castle, I've never eaten at one. I did eat at it's southern equivalent recently while down in Atlanta. They have resturants called "Krystals". The food is the same as what is served at White Castle and the websites even look almost the same.
http://www.krystal.com
http://whitecastle.com/
Anyway, the food is decent and their chili cheese fries rule all.
Burgers are too big here in the west, no room for the fries.
i like to refer to white castle as "white a***ole." i'm such a poet.
I'll have to agree with you Ash- this movie was HYSTERICAL! The parts with Neil Patrick Harris alone are worth the price of admission! Between Harold & Kumar, The Anchorman, and Dodgeball, it's been a pretty good year for mainstream comedy films.
By the way, did you get the same preview before Harold & Kumar that I did... for an awesome looking movie called "Shaun of the Dead"? I CANT WAIT FOR THIS ONE!
Kory wrote:
> By the way, did you get the same preview before Harold & Kumar
> that I did... for an awesome looking movie called "Shaun of the
> Dead"? I CANT WAIT FOR THIS ONE!
Nope, that trailer didn't play.
I've heard of it though.
Shaun Of The Dead?
Currently waiting on a DVD copy from Europe. :o)
Let me know how it is- it sounds like it'll be released in theaters here in september and I'll definitely be going.
Will do Kory.
I'm seriously psyched about seeing it. I can't wait to get the DVD.
Check out the review on http://aintitcoolnews.com
It sounds 100 % Awesome!
I've seen that asian guy in Better Luck Tomorrow, which was a prety good movie, so I kinda felt like seeing this. But then, I'll just get a used copy at Blockbuster for a couple bucks, cause that's what happens to every movie that comes out these days.
I've only tasted the frozen white castles, there's no White Castle restaurants here in the West, but we've got In-n-Out which is far superior.
mmmm.... double double animal style.... agggghhhh.....
agreed...good flick.
and we have krystals around where I live in LA (I know there are a few in New Orleans) and I'm pretty sure it's the same thing....small burgers.
The first time I saw the ad for Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, I thought it was an ad for White Castle made to look like a movie preview.
>I've seen that asian guy in Better Luck Tomorrow
Umm, he was also in the American Pie movies.
BTW Ash forgot to mention that the picture of the burger in his post is life-size. :)
I make my own white castle burgers, tho i call them 'mini-burgers". My mother used to make them, and we never saw a white castle..nobody's is better than mine! I have no idea why but these always tasted a hell of alot better than larger homemade burgers. Maybe it's the idea of having 8 burgers on your plate....
For anyone interested it's easy. You can buy the bread at any hostess or other bakery (usually they're flat small rolls already baked in a package..if walmart or someplace sells any those are usable too, just don't get any that are butter-topped) Pickles and onions and a secret sauce. Cook the onions alongside the burgers. The"secret sauce" is just mayo, mustard and ketchup mixed together. Just enough ketchup and mustard to make the mixture orange (not really equal parts).
Post Edited (08-09-04 22:16)
Just saw it. I gotta say I wasn't too impressed. I had heard for quite a while that this movie was supposed to be pretty funny, but then I saw it the other day and I was pretty disappointed. The movie was full of ideas that should have been funny but weren't. A scene would start, and you'd think "Hey, this is going to be really funny" and then the scene would just end. It was like they didn't have enough confidence in themselves to let the scenes really develop into something that was funny. Example: Neil Patrick Harris as a horny, ecstasy-addicted a***ole who snorts cocaine off the ass of a stripper. Sounds like it should be hilarious, but doesn't really result in many laughs.
The thing is, I generally like these dumb "one wacky adventure after another" kind of movies. So I really wanted this movie to be good. There's one scene that in the hands of more talented filmmakers could have been really funny. SPOILERS AHEAD: Kumar is trying to break his friend Harold out of jail and he spots, lying on a policeman's desk, a giant bag of pot that they confiscated from a drug dealer earlier. Suddenly, he has a dream montage in his mind of himself running through a field towards the bag of pot, walking along the beach with it holding hands, etc. and then it cuts to him actually getting married to the bag of pot, having sex with it on their wedding night, eventually leading to him having an argument with the bag of pot while paying bills and slapping it, abusive-wife style, then making up with it afterwards: "I LOVE YOU" etc.
Now, this is a really funny idea, but I don't know, something about the way it's presented on screen makes it not come across very well. There are several other scenes like this where they waste potentially funny jokes. And then there are other scenes, like the "Battles**ts" scene, where I can't even understand why they thought it would be funny.
And the p**s scene... I can see how that COULD have been funny. A guy tries to take a p**s, but is thwarted by another guy who is just too uncomfortably close to him. A classic situation. But it just happens all of a sudden, and then it's over. No explanation as to WHY Jamie Kennedy's character is in the middle of a field at night at the exact time Kumar is, and his character is never seen or heard from again. If they had made it a running gag (every time Kumar stops somewhere to pee, THAT GUY is there again); that would have been, if not funny, at least clever. As it is now, it's just confusing. I'm all for weird comedy, but that doesn't fit any classification of a "joke" in any traditional sense.
I don't really care what zrtepi says, I am going to see White Castle soon...