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Released by: Warner Brothers
Released on: February 7, 2012.
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Cast: Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
The third film in the series, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas In 3-D arrives on a DVD/Blu-ray flipper disc from Warner Brothers, puzzlingly enough, without any 3-D enhancement of any kind (a Blu-ray 3-D version is available separately). Can the movie hold up without the 'stuff flying at the screen gimmick?' Yeah, more or less.
When the film begins, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) haven't talked to one another for two years. Kumar, living in a dumpy apartment which his horny Jewish friend Adrian(Amir Blumenfeld) rents out to homeless people to use as a bathroom, finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant while Kumar has been living a life with his wife, Maria (Paula Garces), out in the suburbs. It's Christmas time and Kumar's father in law (Danny Trejo) has shown up with the entire family in tow and the only thing he wants is a perfect Christmas tree. When they all head into Manhattan to attend mass, Harold opts to decorate the tree himself for them, so it'll be perfect when they get home. At this point, Kumar and Adrian show up with a package left at the old place for Harold. They open it up, it's a giant spliff and when one thing leads to another, the Christmas tree burns down.
With Harold's family Christmas in complete jeopardy, the race is on to find another perfect Christmas tree and to get it back to Harold's place and set up before his scary father in law makes it home, sees it isn't there, and disowns him. With Harold's 'new friend' Todd (Tom Lennon) and his infant daughter in tow, they wind up heading into Manhattan. Before the night is over they'll fantasize about lesbian nuns, run in to some nasty Russian gangsters with horny daughters, hang out with Neil Patrick Harris backstage at his Christmas extravaganza, experience the wonders of claymation, hang out with a waffle making robot and stop at White Castle for a snack.
Somewhat predictable in that we know Harold and Kumar are going to eventually set aside their differences and become best friends again, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is a big step up from the somewhat disappointing Guantanamo Bay film, the second so far in the series. It's also quite a bit raunchier, featuring full frontal male claymation and non-claymation nudity, a graphic scene with lesbian nuns making out in a shower room and a segment where Neil Patrick Harris heads up to heaven and gets a handjob from two naked angels in Jesus' nightclub. If that weren't enough, the movie features a baby with a taste for weed and cocaine, a 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin To Fuck With' sing along
The film plays with racial stereotypes a lot, not just with Mexicans but with Jewish, Indian and Asian stereotypes as well, but never to the point where it feels mean spirited. Cho and Penn are as reliably funny here as they've been in the past and the film definitely moves at a good pace. The 3-D work is a constant, but viewed here in 2-D format, it's obviously lacking the impact and comes across as an intentionally obvious gimmick (it's all part of the joke). As far as stoner comedies go, this is a good one but when it's all said and done, if you like the earlier Harold And Kumar movies you're going to appreciate this one and if you don't, this will do nothing to change your mind.
NOTE: This release contains the theatrical cut as well as the longer (and raunchier) uncut version of the fim. The uncut version is available on the Blu-ray side of the disc only.
Video/Audio/Extras:
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas hits Blu-ray in a nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition widescreen transfer from Warner Brothers in its original aspect ratio of 2.40.1. All in all, the movie looks great here. Detail is strong throughout (which is a blessing when the naked nuns are on screen, maybe not so much when Danny Trejo gets his close ups!) and color reproduction is excellent. A bit of minor edge enhancement is there if you want to waste your time looking for it but there are no obvious defects here. Of course, the 3-D footage looks goofy in 2-D and some of the CGI used to make all of that happen is obviously fake, but you can't fault the Blu-ray for that. Skin tones look good, black levels are strong and all in all, the movie looks very good in high definition.
The theatrical version of the film gets a pretty killer DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, the extended cut, however, gets shafted with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix. The lossy mix isn't bad, but when you compare certain scenes to the lossless track there's really no mistaking one for the other, the Master Audio mix comes out ahead in every possible way. Regardless, both tracks are busy and active and aggressive when they need to be, but offer clear dialogue and properly balanced levels. There's nothing to complain about here aside from the omission of a lossless track for the unrated cut, the movie sounds very good.
Extras aren't anything to write home about, really. First up are six quick promo pieces with Tom Lennon who speaks about various aspects of the production. None of these run over two minutes in length and they're played (admittedly quite effectively) entirely for laughs. Also here is a five minute bit that compares the storyboards drawn up for the claymation footage to the claymation footage itself - there's not much context to it but it's interesting on a visual level. Aside from that, two deleted scenes totaling four minutes are here (and worth watching, they're funny), as are menus and chapter stops - but that's it, this all amounts to about seventeen minutes worth of stuff. You do, however, get the R-rated and unrated versions of the movie, and as mentioned earlier, this is a flipper disc, so a standard definition barebones DVD version is on the opposite side of the disc.
The Final Word:
It's a shame no 3-D option came with this disc (as mentioned, it is available, it just wasn't sent for review) as this film definitely takes the cake for making the most twisted use of the technology in some time. As to the movie itself, it's considerably better than the second film and almost as funny as the first. If you like the Harold And Kumar movies, you already know you need this - but if you don't, it won't change your mind.
NOTE: The NSFW images below are from the DVD.
