The original “Harold and Kumar” became one of my favorite comedies of all time after an attempt at giving it a fair chance while on cable television one night. Since then it’s been a constant favorite, and on a replay whenever boredom strikes. Even though it was a prime example of product placement, the stoner classic is utterly hilarious and serves as a testament to the talents of John Cho and Kal Penn. “Guantamo Bay,” though, inadvertently serves as an argument against sequels to any and all films. If some director had attempted to mimic the success of “Harold and Kumar” with less comedic punch, and much more forced social overtones, “Guantanamo Bay” would be pointed at, almost immediately. Because frankly, the only thing offensive about this sequel is that every race joke is horribly unfunny, while so blatantly setting up part three, that it’s almost insulting.
There are characters set up to suddenly be forgotten, and the fate of Neil Patrick Harris to obviously be explored in the third part. I wanted to love this sequel, I really did, but everything accomplished in the first comedy from racial undertones, to stoner comedy is beaten over our heads at every turn to the point where it’s just plain clunky. The government is corrupt! White people fear minorities, even on planes! Guantanamo Bay is a hell hole! That and other statements of the obvious are featured with much less grace, this time around, with writers Hurwitz and Schlossberg trying to emulate the tone from the first film with almost no success. And they top themselves in desperation with an appearance by a terrible George W. Bush impersonator. This allows more soap box commentary that practically breaks the fourth wall to preach. When you factor that in with the comedy that revolves around nothing but homophobic gags, “Guantanamo Bay” is an instant sub-par entry. Just the same much of the character molds from the first film are deviated to the point where they’re almost unrecognizable.
Kumar is no longer the smooth talking antithesis to Harold whose own ideals get them in trouble. Instead he’s just a moron who isn’t smart enough to wait until they land in Denmark to smoke pot. This is the cheap device that has him tote a bong that’s confused with a bomb thus trapping them in the infamous prison. In truth Guantanamo Bay is only featured for twenty minutes, and the writers don’t seem to even know what to do in that setting, so we’re back to the duo on the run from Homeland Security. This provides us with a villain in the guise of Rob Corddry who is utterly irritating as ignorant agent Ron Fox applying antiquated stereotypes to every witness he interrogates. There isn’t much here beyond racial joke after racial joke along with many instances that taken from various other films, including a run in with the KKK blatantly torn from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” If that’s not bad enough, Harold’s confrontation with Maria is utterly anti-climactic as the writing team want to move the story along and end it so abruptly that it feels terribly incomplete and ill-conceived.
The sequel succeeds in what it promised some of the time: It made me laugh, and though the run in the KKK is dull, the initial confessional on what they did to minorities had me in hysterics, not to mention the duo’s run in with a group of African Americans which makes for the best moment of the movie thanks to its revealing of how racism and stereotyping pretty much works both ways. The fact that the writers explore how even those of us preaching equal rights, can be just as ignorant as everyone else when we’re outsiders. I’d like to think that it’s just their horrific way of setting up another Harold and Kumar adventure, but really, I just think its bad writing. “Guantanamo Bay” takes everything great about the original and just has no idea what to do with it in the long run turning this into yet another weak follow up. “Escape from Guantanamo Bay” is a disappointing and bland follow up to a comedy that deserved much better than a typical cash-in.