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Critics Consensus: Still raunchy, still irreverent, and still hit-and-miss, this Harold & Kumar outing also has a Christmas miracle: The audience gets to see the sweeter side of the duo.
Critic Consensus: Still raunchy, still irreverent, and still hit-and-miss, this Harold & Kumar outing also has a Christmas miracle: The audience gets to see the sweeter side of the duo.
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All Critics (127) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (86) | Rotten (41) | DVD (2)
For all its pretensions to bad taste, this is surprisingly heartwarming festive fare.
The laughs may not be as strong as they were the first time, and the sense of discovering something fantastically illicit may have faded to mellow, familiar charms that come with the occasional giggle fit, but that's life as a stoner comedy.
It contains the mother of all blunts, which, wouldn't ya know, burns down the Christmas tree that Harold's glowering father-in-law grew from a sapling.
This film will stuff your stocking with profane, perverse, politically incorrect glee.
If there's a complaint to be made, it's that the humor could be less scattershot.
Of course it's offensive and crude. It's also hilarious at times.
I was glad to see them again, but it's probably time for them to go get their lives fully together now
While there's no mistaking a Harold & Kumar movie for something that's going win an Oscar, movie fans shouldn't be so quick to dismiss these 21st century incarnations of Cheech and Chong as purely shallow entertainment.
Seriously, someday you guys are going to sober up, catch this on video and wonder what gave you the giggles all those White Castle runs ago.
Falls short of being a holiday classic or an enjoyable 3D experience - meaning, in the end, it's little more than another Harold and Kumar film.
A funny, memorable romp through metafictional sequel land, and a pleasingly Christmasy grossout film to boot.
What started as a beautiful one-off, extended in a pretty decent sequel, has now grown gray at the edges.
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Super Reviewer
This is a decently entertaining and adequate film, though, in the end, it's really not all that special. I think I liked it a little more than its predecessor, since it didn't take things to such an extreme level straddling the line between offensive funny and just offensively bad taste. Oh, believe me, there's some bad taste type of stuff here, it just didn't seem as overkill. I think this could have been a lot better had they come up with a far stronger and fresher script, but at least they got creative with the 3D (even if I did have to see it in 2D. Plus, they did seem to have fun by making it a Christmas movie (the claymation part is pure gold). Unlike part two which took place within an hour after the first, this one is set several years later. Harold and Kumar have drifted apart and have become estranged. Harold is a married man whose become a responsible straightlaced (read: boring) adult, while Kumar has remained the apathetic juvenile. Fate brings them together on Christmas Eve, and, after some typical shenanigans, the duo are forced to search for the perfect Christmas tree after Harold's father-in-law's prized one is destroyed. What follows is the typical madcap adventutre with all kinds of over the top nuttiness, vulgarity, and laughs, with some (but not too much this time) subtext thrown in for good measure. There's no Meloni cameo, but Elias Koteas does a good job in his place. Also, Danny Trejo wearing Christmas sweaters and playing against type (mostly) is one of the funniest things ever. All in all, an entertaining return, but not as awesome as it should have been. Still, it's short, not boring, and an okay way to spend some time.
A surprise hit in my book. I've never seen the Harold & Kumar installments so maybe that's why this 3rd iteration was an enjoyable one for me. It's everything you could expect from a flick like this: Grotesque, abidingly crude, and vulgarity that's thrown in your face; it's also a lot of fun. This offensive flick throws a lot comedic punches that, most of the time, misses, but every now and then, it finds a haymaker comes from nowhere and results in laugh out loud laughter. I found myself getting lost in gleeful laughter and hooked into the simple but entertaining narrative. Yeah, the 3D formatting is blatantly thrown in, and yes, it isn't the most fantastically well-thought-out film, but it shamelessly embraces all of it, suspending all kinds of beliefs from all over. It's a raunchy movie that doesn't care how ridiculously over-the-top things can get; it's here to entertain. With such an audacious full-front assault towards it's repulsive personality, obviously I had my gripes with the film, but not for it's offensive behavior; this eccentric execution usually comes coupled with poor technicalities and a real poor respect towards the art of filmmaking. Plus, it's simply not my type of movie. Nevertheless, "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas" took me by a wild surprise; my expectation was that equivalent to the more recent Van Wilder flicks. This is a profane caricature that draws its comedic value through its sarcastic outlook on everyday life. It's entertaining
A competently made sequel about everyone's favorite stoner-buddies and how they are reunited after two years, each feeling distant from one another, but willing to give their friendship one last shot. The laughs, as per the first sequel, are scatter-shot and lacking consistency, but who cares? This is a pure stoner comedy that is very funny despite being really, really stupid. It does not possess the inescapable charm the first film had, but the pace is quick, the laughs are solid, and of course Santa Claus is involved somehow in a disrespectful way. Simply put, if you liked the first two, you will like this one as well. If you can't take perverse humor or a multitude of sex/drug jokes, you will probably hate it. Overall, I liked it, not enough to say it is completely worth watching, but it is enjoyable.
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