It is unfortunate that I watched Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle before I was reviewing things, because its sequel practically demands to be compared to the original. Which I can do, but not very well without an original review to refer to; so I’m going to have to think of some things to say about the movie on its own merits as well, which is just annoying.

After returning from dinner, stoners Harold (Wall Street accountant) and Kumar (medical prodigy with a slacker attitude toward med school) hop a plane to Amsterdam in pursuit of Harold’s new romance with neighbor Maria. But before the plane gets far out over the Atlantic, their ethnicities and certain illegal drug-related activities find them hauled off to Guantanamo Bay under suspicion of terrorism, and then across the South toward Texas to find someone who can get them out of trouble with the law and incidentally maybe stop the wedding of Kumar’s college ex-. Plus, Amsterdam is still beckons from beyond the horizon.

The blend of scatalogical, sexual, political, racial, hallucinogenic, and romantic humor leaves something for just about everyone, and it was funny far more often than not. My complaint, I guess (here comes the comparison motif), is that in trying to recapture the frenetic pacing and good-natured insanity of the original film, they lost the deep current of lackadaisical fun that made it so brilliant in the first place. As a comedy, it was largely successful. As a sequel, it made a valiant but ultimately doomed effort. On the bright side, Neil Patrick Harris once again spent five minutes of film single-handedly being worth the price of admission, brilliantly portraying a beyond parodic version of Neil Patrick Harris.