Director: Danny Leiner
Starring: Kal Penn, John Cho, Paula Garces, Neil Patrick Harris, Christopher Meloni.

From the makers of Dude, Where's My Car? Harold and Kumar follows in the same sort of vein. The film follows the adventures of the duo on their quest to reach White Castle (a burger shop). Harold works in finance and is bullied by his work colleagues into doing their work that they cannot be bothered to do. He is so lacking in confidence that he cannot even bring himself to talk to the girl of his dreams who he sees everyday in the lift in their apartment block. Kumar on the other hand is spilling over in confidence, but in the cocky arrogant way, and does not want to go to med school so deliberately sabotages each of his interviews for med school that he turns up to.

After a long day, Harold and Kumar decide to get stoned and after seeing an advert for White Castle, decide that they must go and get some. However, when they do eventually reach White Castle, they find that it has been taken over by another chain fast food company and that the next White Castle is miles away. At this point they can either go home and go without, or they can decide to continue on their adventure. They decided to continue. This is where the film really takes off, as with all of these genres of film, nothing goes easily for them, and highlights include a racoon, a cheetah, hang gliding and an encounter with a very odd mechanic suitably named Freakshow.

Where this film differs from all its predecessors is that it actually tries to tackle an issue at the same time as cramming in as many ludicrous and funny stunts that it can. It explores, albeit in a very lighthearted way, the experiences of second-generation immigrants in America and the prejudices that they face both from people and institutions. Harold and Kumar at the start of the film (especially Harold) all to easily let these prejudices get the better of them and give in. As the film progresses to the eventual moment when they finally reach White Castle, there has been a change in both Harold and Kumar for the better, Harold decides he is going to stand up to the bullies at work and also to go get the girl. Kumar decides that there is nothing wrong with going for a career in medicine after all. This, I felt, put a nice twist on the normal teen movie genre and hopefully Harold and Kumar will not be as instantly forgettable as the ones before it. I recommend going to see this as a light film after a stressful day at uni.

Certifcate 15, 90 minutes