Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

I’ll come clean – this stoner comedy is one of the funniest films I’ve seen since ‘There’s Something About Mary’. Harold (John Cho) is an efficient Korean-born finance rep who’s often left to pick up the pieces of his xenophobic, work-shy colleagues; his best mate, Kumar (Kal Penn), a promising Indian medical student constantly ribbed by the local dunderhead gang, is supposed to be readying himself for a series of career interviews but, quite frankly, he’d rather just get stoned. And what pleases Kumar pleases Harold. During a toking session, the pair spy a TV ad for a well-known US fast-food joint that spurs them into an overnight burger quest that proceeds to spiral ridiculously, and hilariously, out of control. The film comes with at least half-a-dozen side-splitting scenes, yet behind all the Farrelly-esque gross-out humour and Cheech & Chong-isms lies a sensitive little picture with a deftly handled anti-racism slant. Credit too to the congenial leads (especially Penn), who have their indomitable characters down to a T.