Ever since Kal Pen's character on HOUSE, M.D. offed himself a few seasons back, before it got tiresome to watch the main character House self-destruct and get diagnoses wrong until the patient was almost dead or really dead, I wondered what Mr. Pen was up to. Why would one leave the relatively lucrative and likely boring filming of a TV series?
He had acquitted himself well in The Namesake, the story of an American with parents from India who was ticked off because his folks had named him Gogol after the author. Well, that is not really why he is mad; he is mad because as in any culture where the male child is so highly valued Gogol is privileged to a fault, utterly spoiled but is rebelling against the very culture that decreed he should be the anointed one.
He was a parody of the Indian college student in the Van Wilder films. He has appeared in NPH's sit-com "How I Met Your Mother." But what else has he done? He was apparently making more H & K movies.
Korean-born John Cho has appeared in Star Trek as Sulu, in Ugly Betty, in Nick and Norah and a variety of other TV and film projects.
So, what brings them back to Harold and Kumar, a franchise reminiscent of the National Lampoon Chevy Chase Vacation films?
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)According to the official site, the comedic sidekicks' new film, A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas, picks up six years after their last adventure, wherein I believe they get deported to Gitmo and get high with President Bush, the Younger.
The pair has grown apart and have new friends now. Somehow, my mistake, a package meant for Harold arrives at Kumar's front door. In the ensuing attempt to deliver the package to Harold his father in-law's Christmas tree and the "high-grade" contents of the tree go up in smoke. They decide to replace the tree which takes them on a slew of misadventures. I am betting the package is from the mysterious, esoteric, and elusive Neil Patrick Harris.
I am certain that juvenile and embarrassing laughs and bathroom humor are the likely fare of this comedic Christmas repast. But it will probably make my husband roll on the floor laughing as I roll my eyes.
Opens 11-4-2011.
