BLU-RAY/DVD REVIEWS

Harold is married and moved on from his wild weed days, while his estranged BFF Kumar is an unemployed, lonely burnout. But when a mysterious Christmas package is delivered, it brings the former friends together for yet another adventure.

I find the HAROLD AND KUMAR movies harmless, enjoyable fun and A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR CHRISTMAS, while not the best, is a worthy entry in to the series.

It’s still silly, immature and crude as hell but the characters are easy to love. Though noticeably older, Kal Penn and John Cho still look like they’re having a blast and their chemistry has aged well. The story is pretty dumb (Harold needs to find the perfect Christmas tree for his father-in-law), which is sort of par for the course for this series, but it provides a vehicle for plenty of fun and ridiculous set pieces. Gratuitous naked nun montage? Check. Baby high on weed, coke and ecstasy? Yep. Danny Trejo ejaculating in 3D? Um, of course.

There's cheap jokes aplenty, you can be sure, but most at least got a smirk out of me. Waffle Bot, while inherently dumb and pointless, made me laugh more than I'm willing to admit. Sue me. The movie definitely plays up the 3D in the cheesiest ways possible, constantly hurling and exploding things at the screen, but given the subject matter and carefree tone, it works. And the incredibly graphic claymation sequence is amazing, even if Community beat them to it slightly.

My one major issue with HAROLD AND KUMAR 3 is the stupid idea to have the title characters not be friends for a huge chunk of the running time. Not only does it waste time by rehashing the same conflict from the last two movies, but it's incredibly frustrating because you just want to see these two familiar characters get along, as you know they will eventually in the end. It doesn’t help that their replacement counterparts are sorely lacking. Kumar's sidekick played by College Humor’s Amir Blumenfeld is incredibly grating and annoying, and Thomas Lennon as Harold's straight-laced BFF is a one-note joke throughout the movie.

Thankfully, other supporting characters who make more favorable impressions, including fun cameos by everyone from Patton Oswalt to RZA to Casey Jones himself, Elias Koteas. Even Machete turns up and you can't get more perfect casting than Danny Trejo as Harold’s scary father-in-law. But of course the most important part of the puzzle is Neil Patrick Harris and he delivers in spades. NPH continues to be a champion and the best part of these movies, with a great sequence where he (and his partner!) play down those pesky "gay" rumors. His segment alone is worth adding this to your holiday movie repertoire.

The Extended Cut, which adds an extra six minutes, amounts to a couple extra lines here and there, another plug for White Castle and a recurring gag where Kumar’s neighbor charges homeless men to use his bathroom. Nothing too mind-blowing.

Deleted Scenes: A few alternate scenes that don’t really fit in to the film, including a bunch of Jewish people at a Chinese restaurant and Santa getting frisky with the virgin Mary.

Bringing Harold and Kumar Claymation to Life: Sadly this is just a storyboard comparison, with no actual behind the scenes footage on how they made it. Disappointing.

Through the Haze with Tom Lennon: A series of tongue-in-cheek interviews with the RENO 911 actor about the making of the movie. Some of it is funny (F*ck you Charles Dickens!"), but splitting these in to six one-minute segments was a dumb move.

If you like the other HAROLD AND KUMAR movies, I'm sure this third installment will be entertaining for you, as it's pretty much more of the same. Somebody seriously should give NPH a special award for these flicks though.

Extra Tidbit: Chris Meloni, you are missed.