Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
New Line Cinema | Release Date: July 30, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Harold and Kumar share a quality the overgrown adolescents in films like this are never allowed to possess: They're witty, focused, and highly aware. They make having a brain look hip. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert Koehler
Gleefully upends expectations and delivers an energetic comedy tracing two guys'all-night search for the perfect White Castle burger. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Smart, goofy and endearing, Cho and Penn make a terrific team, and the fact that they're starring in their own movie suggests that, in the Hollywood comedy frat house, there's finally room for everyone. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A peppy, satisfying comedy that could soon become a minor classic Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Will seem a classic if you're stoned, and only slightly less funny if you're straight. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
You don't just root for Harold and Kumar to get the girl, get the weed, and, above all, get the burger – you want to hang out with them while they' doing it, and see if they'e free next Friday night, too. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
This stoner buddy movie is filled with raunchy, gross-out humor. It's immature, clunky and probably the best bit of groundbreaking social commentary we've seen in years. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The most gut-bustingly funny movie so far this year. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Penn's Kumar could become Jeff Spicoli for the generation of college kids who've never seen "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" but always seem to have a copy of "Dude, Where's My Car?" cued up at a moment's notice. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I laughed often enough during the screening of Harold & Kumar that afterward I told Dann Gire, distinguished president of the Chicago Film Critics' Assn., that I thought maybe I should rent "Dude, Where's My Car?" and check it out. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
A blissfully silly, character-driven road movie with impressive laugh-per-minute performance specs. Read full review
70
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Winds up a sweetly nonchalant and excellently unwhiny allegory of seeking and gaining entry to the Caucasian fortress that is present-day America, or at least nocturnal New Jersey. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
That Cho and Penn are such likable actors and are so funny in their roles earns the movie more slack than it probably deserves and prevents it from being just another gross-out comedy. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
May have said more about race in America today than any other movie of last year. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Clearly, this unabashedly silly movie, written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, is the work of people with a grasp of the stream-of-consciousness creativity that a few bong hits can impart. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
The recent model for this kind of surreal jazz-riff comedy is Doug Liman's 1999 "Go," a neo-classic. But you know already from the director (Dude, Where's My Car?'s Danny Leiner) if this movie is for you. Leiner has cornered the recent market on low-rent farces. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunStaff (Not Credited)
In their formidable quest for junk food, Harold and Kumar end up redefining what the all-American protagonists of Hollywood movies should look like - and prove this comedy is not quite as brain-dead as it originally appeared. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
It boldly subverts stereotypes and challenges conventional wisdom by presenting affable Korean and Indian antiheroes who are just as sex-crazed, irresponsible, mischief-prone, and chemically altered as their white counterparts. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The chemistry between the two is as old as Abbott and Costello. Harold is the sensible worried one, and Kumar zany and reckless. The movie's funniest moments, set at Princeton University, caricature and then demolish the image of Asian-Americans as nerdy, sexless bookworms incapable of fun. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
The outlandish premise and greasy title may be a little hard to swallow, but Danny Leiner's proudly moronic film embraces its boneheadedness so cheerfully that its lowbrow charms are nearly irresistible. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Funnier when high -- what isn't? -- Harold and Kumar may also serve as the first infomercial for weed and burgers. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The multicultural cast gives a shred of substance to what's otherwise a standard adolescent gross-out flick. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The twist of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a laugh-out-loud if not-exactly-good stoner comedy, is that its heroes, an entry-level investment banker and a brainiac pre-med student, are not dimwits. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
Plays it a little too safe and hackneyed with the comedy, but the characters and the talented actors who play them are a refreshing change of pace that make the movie feel like a minor buddy-comedy revolution. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Pretty standard stuff, mixing a few truly clever moments with facile drug humor and throwaway female characters. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The laugh ratio in this run-on of skits is pretty low, at least to the unaltered mind of one who's seen enough of these films and eaten enough White Castle burgers to last a lifetime. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Terrific lead performances make this epic stoner comedy watchable but can't save it from flat direction. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
For the most part this reminded me of a hysterical passenger pushing random buttons in the cockpit of a plunging airplane. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The official R rating is for "strong language, sexual content, drug use and some crude humor," but the MPAA is just being polite. It's all crude. Read full review
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