A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas- Movie Review

Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson
Written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Running Time: 90 minutes (1h, 30 mins.)
Rated R (for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence).
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures (New Line Cinema)

The darkness of Halloween is out of the way, so now it's time to get right into the joy and bright lights of Christmas. The jolly songs on the radio, the stores filled with big toys and games, the various amounts of drugs spread onto a toddler...you probably wonder why I mentioned that last part, aren't you? Because of these guys. The Cheech & Chong of our generation are back and this time, they're holding nothing back, especially in 3D.

Set six years after their zany escape from Guantamano Bay, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) have been estranged from one another, replacing each other with different friends and living completely different lives. While Harold has a great job in Wall Street, a big house and is now married to Maria (Paula Garces), Kumar is living a nasty apartment and spending all his days getting high. Things change on Christmas Eve when a mysterious package brings the two guys together and when a joint burns down Harold's father-in-law's (Danny Trejo) Christmas tree, they travel across New York City to find the perfect one. Through their mission, trouble ensues at every single turn.

If you've seen the first two films, then you know what to expect. If you're new to this franchise, prepare to get shocked, because this time around they're really pushing the envelope, one notable example being a baby getting exposed to marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy. Expect parent groups to be all against that. Another example is the 3D. It may be unusual that a film like this would be filmed in the format, but it does work really well. While it makes fun of the technology, it also embraces it, having many things fly at us like weed smoke and splattering eggs.

John Cho and Kal Penn still have the chemistry that drove the first two films and of course, back from the dead is Neil Patrick Harris. Harris plays himself once again: the drug snorting, very heterosexual version of himself. Here in this, he makes fun of his real-life public image, pretending to be gay. NPH pushes that further when he sexually assults a Rockette. Danny Trejo is perfectly used as Harold's menacing father-in-law. We don't see too much of Paula Garces as Maria, just like the first two films and Danneel Ackles returns as Vanessa, Kumar's on-off girlfriend.

Directing this time around is Todd Strauss-Schulson. This is good direction, especially when this is his feature-film debut. The writing is funny, filthy and inventive. Writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg send up many references to Christmas classics like A Christmas Story and even going into a claymation sequence, which lasted a bit shorter than I expected it too. I liked it, but Community did it better. Just saying.

I liked this film. Sure, it doesn't live up to the first, but it's slightly better than the second. While many people might be offended by what happens in the film, there are many people who know how to take a joke and have a good time. I am one of those people. I give the film *** (3 stars).