Plot
An Asian-American office worker and his Indian-American stoner friend embark on a quest to satisfy their desire for White Castle burgers.
Release Year: 2004
Rating: 7.1/10 (83,182 voted)
Critic's Score: 64/100
Director:
Danny Leiner
Stars: John Cho, Kal Penn, Ethan Embry
Storyline Harold Lee and Kumar Patel are two stoners who end up getting the munchies. What they crave the most after seeing a TV advertisement, is a trip to White Castle. So from here, follows a journey for the burgers they require. On their way they will encounter many obstacles including a raccoon, a racist officer, and a horny Neil Patrick Harris.
Writers: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Cast: John Cho
-
Harold Lee
Ethan Embry
-
Billy Carver
Robert Tinkler
-
J.D.
Fred Willard
-
Dr. Willoughby
Kal Penn
-
Kumar Patel
Steve Braun
-
Cole
Dan Bochart
-
Extreme Sports Punk #1
Paula Garcés
-
Maria
(as Paula Garcès)
Mike Sheer
-
'I'm So High' Kid
Christopher Thompson
-
'Don't You Wanna Be Cool' Kid
David Krumholtz
-
Goldstein
Eddie Kaye Thomas
-
Rosenberg
Angelo Tsarouchas
-
Mean Tollbooth Guy
(as Angelo Tsachouras)
Anthony Anderson
-
Burger Shack Employee
Siu Ta
-
Cindy Kim
Opening Weekend: $5,480,378
(USA)
(1 August 2004)
(2135 Screens)
Gross: $18,225,165
(USA)
(12 September 2004)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Neil Patrick Harris and Ryan Reynolds (who both make cameos in this film) have both starred in television shows as doctors. Harris played a doctor in
Doogie Howser, M.D., and Reynolds played a med student in
Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. As noted elsewhere, Kal Penn later starred on
House M.D..
Goofs:
Incorrectly regarded as goofs:
The slider special (as shown on the TV commercial at the beginning) is $2.99 for 6 burgers, fries and a drink. If they ordered 5 specials each, their bill should be just under $30 before tax, and yet they are charged almost $50. However, in the finale they order separate items (30 burgers, 5 fries, and 4 drinks each). Unless the server converted that order into specials (8 specials, plus 10 burgers and 2 fries), they would not get the cheaper price.
Quotes:
[first lines]
J.D.:
Billy boy! Get your ass ready. It's almost 5:00 and this bad boy needs to get his drink on. No, no, no. Give me that. Billy Carver:
Don't. J.D.:
I'm gonna burn it once and for all. Billy Carver:
Stop it.
User Review
If stoner comedy has a place in the satire canon, this is one of the best.
Rating:
If two chicks sitting in stalls playing 'Battleshits' while the two
Indian and Asian 'heroes' hide between them suffering the sounds and
smells of scatological low humor sounds funny to you, then you should
consider seeing 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.' My last stoner
movie, the remake of 'Starsky and Hutch,' was indeed Sunday school by
contrast.
Director Danny Leiner ('Dude, Where's My Car?') has taken this genre
and made a classic, not just because it exploits every possible ethnic
stereotype with zeal equaled only by 'Bad Santa's' decimating the
Christmas formula. 'Castle' has such fun imitating the roguish good
will of the Hope/Crosby road pictures while commenting on the egregious
weaknesses of parents and police that almost anyone who doesn't mind a
breast or two bared in the name of satire can laugh heartily at modern
adult pretensions and youthful indiscretion.
Harold and Kumar are trying to find an all-night White Castle after
experiencing the sudden yearning that afflicts almost anyone who has
had a 'slider' burger. Like that little square of fat and calories, the
pot and girls are just too good not to indulge now and then. The two
early twenties students, one a serious stock analyst and the other a
lazy pre-med genius, are like Hope and Crosby in their witty repartee
and canny ability to escape harm. Being delivered from the wrath of
seriously deformed 'Freak Show' and his siren wife doesn't deter them
from considering the affections of the battling babes or idolizing Neil
Patrick Harris in a cameo playing himself as a lethal womanizer.
More serious is the multicultural subtext about stereotyping (Asians
are nerdy number crunchers and Indians are overachieving medical
doctors, for instance) overturned by, for instance, morphing a
seemingly 'Joy Luck' club gathering into a raunchy party or exposing a
gang of mouthy skinheads as 'girliemen.' It's all pop-cult fun at our
own expense, something akin to actually enjoying the articles in
'Playboy' even if they weren't our reason for buying the mags.
My grandson Cody and I bonded once again, this time just laughing at
the silliness, enjoying the satire, and figuring how we could get his
dad to allow his young brother to see it, despite the lurid spots that
give spice and lend naughtiness to our increasingly dangerous lives.
If stoner comedy has a place in the satire canon, this is one of the
best.
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