A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

As much I loved the original Harold & Kumar movie and the sequel, I knew that this one wouldn’t be as good. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the duo, go check out Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay first. The second sequel A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas – man I just knew that bringing the Christmas stuff into a movie franchise I so loved was going to ruin things. Just what is it about Christmas – makes all these cheesy stuff bland and boring stuff?

Anyways, released last year in 3D, the movie is directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and sees both John Cho and Kal Penn return as the awesome duo. This time however, a few years have passed since the events of the last movie and Kumar & Roldie aren’t friends anymore. They have lost touch and their lives have taken different turns. Harold is married to Maria and has a beautiful big house and is very successful in his job at Wall Street. Kumar has recently just broken up with Vanessa and he lives with little hygiene and has let himself go with no proper career. Vanessa comes over to see Kumar and tells him that she is pregnant with his child but they argue and she leaves.

Harold meanwhile has Maria’s rather large family over for Christmas including her intimidating father (Danny Trejo) who doesn’t really approve of his daughter marrying Harold. He expects Harold to make the perfect Christmas for him and has also brought a tree which he has grown for eight years and has deemed the perfect Christmas tree. Kumar gets a package at his apartment addressed to Harold (they used to live together) and decides to go give it himself. At the house the two old friends awkwardly talk and see that the package has a huge joint, which Kumar cannot resist. As he smokes it, Harold who quit a while back, knocks it out of Kumar’s hand and it falls on the tree which catches fire and burns. To replace it, Harold reserves one of the last decent Christmas trees available at a nearby lot. Kumar feeling bad about the tree goes out finding a replacement and ends up bribing the tree lot owner to sell him the last tree – which Harold had also booked. When Harold sees the car with the tree drive away, he chases it, and the car with Kumar’s tree crashes and blows up on the highway, destroying the tree.

As Harold & Kumar argue their respective friends Adrian & Todd are also at the spot, along with Todd’s toddler daughter. Adrian says he will ask the girl whose party he is going to for a tree she has at her place. At the party things get worse when the girl’s father, a reknowned deadly gangster Sergei Katsov, arrives and shoots up the place, chasing away all the guests. Harold & Kumar manage to escape along with everyone else, save for Todd & Adrian who hid in a closet but things get funny when Todd’s baby gets high on cocaine hidden there. Meanwhile Harold and Kumar are forced to go to Broadway, where they surprising find a still alive Neil Patrick Harris (he was supposedly killed in the previous movie) who can help them get a tree. Kumar also gets a waffle-bot, a secretly deadly one, which falls in love with them. It helps the two escape from the Ukrainian mobsters that Katsov sent to kill them. As they leave, an errant shot from Harold hits Santa Klaus in the ass and he falls out from his sleigh in the sky!

The two patch up Santa and they also patch up their friendship. Harold invites Kumar to his Christmas party the next day as they say goodnight. Kumar goes to see Vanessa  and explains he will stop smoking weed for the sake of her unborn baby and will re-take the exams to become a doctor. Harold returns to Maria’s house with her father waiting on the couch. The two argue until Harold explains he might not be the perfect son-in-law, but he is the perfect man for Maria. Maria’s father hesitates before accepting him into the Perez Family. The film ends with Kumar & Vanessa joining Harold, Maria and her family for a Christmas celebration while Santa smokes a bong and wishes us a merry christmas.

Cheesy, corny and messy in places, the movie still has some laughs but a lot of the stuff seem forced. This could very well be the end of the franchise. I wish it could have been better. 7 out of 10 and that is generous!

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