{"id":9230,"date":"2024-11-30T01:20:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9230"},"modified":"2024-11-30T01:20:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:20:13","slug":"a-very-harold-kumar-3-d-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/a-very-harold-kumar-3-d-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas <\/strong>(2011)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.-New Line\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: William Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Barrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 4, 2011 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Danny Trejo, Paula Garces, Danneel Harris, Thomas Lennon, Neil Patrick Harris, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, Elias Koteas, Amir Blumenfeld, Jordan Hinson, Bobby Lee, Patton Oswalt, Richard Riehle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $35.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Forget about It’s a Wonderful Life. The spiritual epiphany experienced by Jimmy Stewart is nothing compared to the latest quest of our favorite stoner heroes. A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas<\/strong> makes Bad Santa look like a heartwarming family movie. It\u2019s a crude stoner comedy adorned with mistletoe. Even better, it knows it and wears the distinction like a badge of honor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A few years have passed since their last adventure. The former best buds have become estranged as their lives have taken divergent paths. Harold (Cho) is a happily married man and lives in a nice house with his wife Maria (Garces) in the suburbs of New Jersey. He’s gainfully employed as an investment banker on Wall Street where angry protesters throw eggs and assorted bodily matter at him as leaves at the end of the day. Kumar (Penn) hasn’t changed too much. He still lives in the same crappy apartment and gets stoned all the time. His girlfriend Vanessa (Harris) left him because of his irresponsible ways. He’s been thrown out of medical school after failing a drug test. And now he\u2019s just learned his ex is pregnant with his child.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fate brings the guys together again after somebody leaves a mysterious package for Harold outside Kumar\u2019s apartment. He decides to drop it off at his old friend’s house before heading off to a wild party with his new roommate\/best friend, some bespectacled loser named Adrian (Blumenfeld). Harold is preparing to spend Christmas with his in-laws who make no effort to hide their disapproval of their son-in-law. Her father Carlos (Trejo, Machete) is especially hostile. It looks like Harold should consider taking up old habits again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kumar shows up and Harold invites him in for a quick drink. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for Kumar to cause trouble. This time, he accidentally burns down the Christmas tree, the one the father-in-law grew himself, the one he schlepped all the way to Jersey. The guys need to obtain another tree and decorate it before Maria and her parents return from their excursion into the city. Thus begins another adventure-filled night for the two former buds. This time, we have the added luxury of 3D meaning we get to see many, many things leap (or drift) from the screen just mere inches from our face.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On their quest for a new tree, Harold and Kumar will encounter tree salesmen posing as street gangsters, a rowdy teen party, a homicidal Ukrainian gangster (Koteas), another visit to White Castle, a baby who ingests many illegal narcotic substances and (of course) Neil Patrick Harris. In one of the movie’s most outrageous moments, Kumar lights up a bowl of weed in a car with a baby on board. Almost immediately, the cute tyke gets the giggles and a mad case of the munchies. I know it\u2019s wrong on so many levels, but it’s also hilarious.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas <\/strong>is hilarious from start to finish. It’s definitely one of the most irreverent holiday movies ever made. Any movie that features Santa Claus getting shot in the head and a trip to Heaven where Jesus is shown with a topless woman under each arm will never be considered an example of good taste. This movie leaves no stone unturned as the guys manage to disrespect everything that’s good about Christmas. In a nod to A Christmas Story, Harold gets a certain part of his body stuck to a frozen pole (hint, it’s not his tongue) without so much as a triple-dog dare. Of course, Neil Patrick Harris puts in his customary appearance. This time he\u2019s headlining a Christmas show. Not surprisingly, Harold and Kumar take part dressed as Nutcracker soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s more outrageous stuff in A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas<\/strong>, but I don\u2019t want to give all of it away. Like its predecessors, it relies on a lot of shock humor, those moments when the viewer gasps and says “I can’t believe they just did\/said that.” In addition, it makes excellent use of its 3D effects. Here\u2019s a quick list of the stuff you\u2019ll see comin\u2019 at ya: snowflakes, eggs, ping pong balls, giant candy canes, blood, a knocked-out tooth, broken glass, pointing fingers, a giant joint and clouds of marijuana smoke. There’s an especially funny scene where a big bag of cocaine is busted open and Bing Crosby’s \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d plays as the feel-good powder falls to the floor and drifts off the screen. On top of that, there’s a great line that sums up the whole 3D overuse thing. Harold asks one of his junior colleagues “Hasn’t 3D jumped the shark?” Uh, did he not see Shark Night 3D?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most inventive moment in A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas <\/strong>occurs after the guys drink eggnog that’s been laced with something. They imagine themselves as Claymation figures in a bloody, nightmarish version of a Rankin-Bass Christmas special. The Heat Miser has nothing on the killer snowman that chases our two heroes down the city streets. That\u2019s not the only violent business going on. The guys are targeted by Ukrainian gangsters for violating the teenage daughter of their boss. It gets pretty bloody.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Once again, Cho and Penn make a great comedy team, especially now that Harold is an uptight suburbanite and Kumar is an unemployed slacker who still lives in a cloud of marijuana smoke. Garces isn’t in it that much, but she still looks totally hot. The guys’ old neighbors, the two Jewish stoners (Thomas and Krumholtz) make a return appearance. Harold’s business colleague\/new best friend is Todd (Lennon), an uptight dork and father of the drug-taking baby girl. Both Todd and Adrian are total d-bags. Harold and Kumar belong together. They are as perfect a match as ice cream and sprinkles. Of course, Neil Patrick Harris is still a complete scumbag but it wouldn’t be the same without him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A movie like A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas <\/strong>doesn’t need to be analyzed. I’m not even sure if a traditional review should be applied to it. H&K have their fans and they\u2019ll go to see it regardless of what any critic says. If you like the first two, there’s no reason you won’t like the third one too. It’s the first Christmas-themed stoner movie I’ve ever seen. It makes me think about the reception a Cheech & Chong holiday comedy would have gotten about 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas <\/strong>is the crudest, rudest, rowdiest and most irreverent movie of the year. Many people might find the premise and the content extremely offensive. That’s the damn point! Teens and college students are going to love it. You will probably find yourself laughing albeit for all the wrong reasons. I can think about this movie’s highlights (or lowlights depending on how you look at it) while those annoying Christmas commercials are shown non-stop for the next two months (UGH!).\"\"<\/p>\n

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A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas (2011)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.-New Line\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: William Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Barrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 4, 2011 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/A-Very-Harold-Kumar-3D-Ch.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9230"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9501,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9230\/revisions\/9501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}