Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: April 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Anyone can come up with jokes about incestuous rednecks or pubic hair that "looks like Osama bin Laden's beard," but it takes guts to make a comedy in which the Indian-American hero accuses an African-American TSA agent of racial profiling, all so he won't get caught smuggling weed onto a plane. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The big payoff, of course, is Neil Patrick Harris reprising his role as "Neil Patrick Harris." Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's not exactly high art, but it's certainly high. Read full review
75
PremiereJenni Miller
At the screening I attended, someone walked in wearing a shirt that read "I HEART BONGS," so that gives you a pretty good idea of the target audience. Maybe this time they will rouse themselves from the couch and make it possible for us to follow Harold and Kumar through more adventures. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe Leydon
An over-the-top and beyond-PC comedy that sometimes deftly, sometimes slapdashedly infuses party-hearty anarchy with hectoring moral outrage. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Precisely because their attitudes are so bluntly hedonistic and apolitical, Harold and Kumar manage to be fairly persuasive when they get around to criticizing the status quo, which the movie has the wit to acknowledge itself as part of. Read full review
70
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Honestly, the most shocking thing put forth in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay just might be the proposition that George W. Bush is actually a pretty cool guy. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
That rare sequel that builds on the movie that came before it without crushing its attributes to death. "Escape" doesn't feel belabored. Giddy, freewheeling and sweet-natured, it pulls off the effect of seeming spontaneous, a tall task by itself. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
Harold and Kumar are pothead patriots in the first feel-good torture film. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
They are Abbott & Costello with dirty mouths--indomitable, ungovernable, and possibly immortal. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Harold and Kumar, fortunately, never lose their verbally relentless way of delivering raunch as pure common sense. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie is unpolished, unabashedly un-PC, and takes on as many "sacred cows" as it can uncover in a slightly-too-long 105 minutes. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
If only the wit weren't overwhelmed by lame jokes about body parts, functions and fluids. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Mostly, Harold is a guilty pleasure that retains the anarchic charms of the original. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
No political tract, but it can be surprisingly bold. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The jokes all revolve around weed, stereotypes, and Neil Patrick Harris; the stereotype stuff is by far the funniest. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Lacks the fresh charm that made their first such an unexpected (if guilty) pleasure. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Mostly dumb, no matter how desperately and even valiantly it aims for "thinky." Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It can devote itself entirely to bodily functions or, having established its grossness quotient, take the high road toward satire like its 2004 predecessor, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." It fails mainly because it does neither. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
You find yourself smiling at some of the bits, wincing through many, many others, and ultimately wondering if the pacing would've improved had either H or K developed a terrible cocaine habit. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Among the variations of gags from the original are a threesome involving Harold, Kumar and a giant bag of marijuana. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Is a truly political stoner movie even possible? The entire point of getting high is to take some of the sting out of life. The movie goes after easy targets and goes soft on the harder issues. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It exploits post-9/11 anxieties as fodder for goofball gooniness. "Dr. Strangelove" it's not. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie is sporadically funny in an anarchistic way. But Cho and Penn don't have the needed personality or comic identity to sustain a franchise and their non-drug humor is so crude and scatological that -- to say the least -- it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
It's a big fat missed opportunity. Read full review
40
SlateDana Stevens
It betrays the spirit of the stoner comedy, which has traditionally been subversive--when it wasn't detailing the love affair between two marginally functional young men and their stash of sweet, sweet herb. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A largely mind-numbing experience. Read full review
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