my first thoughts after seeing the trailer for this movie were: “whoa, asian leads in a conventionally caucasian type of film!” that more or less sums up my thoughts even during the film. what’s cool about the two characters of harold and kumar is that they are just average americans, despite the colour that may be on their faces. western society usually fails to notice that. hollywood, on the other hand, may just be starting to.

harold & kumar is wickedly funny, filled with many a laugh-out-loud moment. john cho and kal penn are such an awesome duo. unlike dude, where’s my car? (which is alluded to rather hilariously by harold in the movie), harold & kumar utilizes a lot of wit, mixing gross-out humour with social commentary. besides the idea that people like harold and kumar can be “average joes” in america, there are also doses of reality with the characters the two encounter along the way, such as their pothead jewish neighbours, the jailed black men, and the white dudes who try to take advantage of them. obviously, a lot of stuff is exaggerated in the movie, but it is so in an attempt to open people’s eyes a bit more when it comes to race relations.

although harold & kumar succeeded in making me laugh my ass off constantly, i felt that some of the storyline was a bit choppy and some parts didn’t transition very well. however, for a comedy, i suppose that didn’t affect the overall movie too much. mmm, this has given me a hankering for white castle burgers. too bad we don’t have any here in vancouver.

what sucks is the poor reception this movie received on opening weekend (well, where i live, anyway). because you know if the film starred two cute white guys, it would have done a lot better at the box office. i don’t like always making things an issue of colour, but sometimes it’s difficult to notice these glaring inequities. harold & kumar was much better than dodgeball, anchorman, and starsky & hutch.