Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle hardly requires further description.  Two friends — one bullied by co-workers, one by his family — temporarily escape the drudgery of their lives in search of a perfect burger.  A perfect burger from a TV ad, seen through the haze of smoking up.  Over one night, they endure all manner of barbed temptations, the half-baked fever-dreams of the politically incorrect.

Here is a movie beyond reproach.  It begins as Office Space and eases into Pineapple Express with unabashed charm.  These stoners are smart and surprisingly subtle.  Which is not to say the movie doesn’t try every cheap trick in the lowbrow comedy playbook.  It does, but the gags come quickly, variously, and work often enough to amuse.  If you can deal with an evening of bigotry, surgery, Doogie, nudity, cartoons, romance, and raccoons . . . you just might be up for this trip.

* * *

Rated 18A for coarse language, nudity, substance abuse, and violence

90 minutes