A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas [Blu-Ray]

A complete break with reality, outside of the drug-induced hallucinations, is appropriate for the once lovable, but now mostly just nasty stoner comedy franchise. Picking up six years after Harold and Kumar's mean-spirited adventure in Guantanamo Bay, the constantly bickering odd couple haven't seen each other in the interim and it takes a mystery package for Harold delivered to his old address with Kumar to bring them back together. Harold (John Cho) has put his pot smoking shenanigans behind him, becoming a successful lawyer and husband. Kumar (Kal Penn) can barely keep his eyes open to finish his umpteen bong-rip of the day. When Kumar shows up at Harold's doorstep on Christmas Eve, Harold is none too pleased, already stressing about impressing his wife's intimidating father, played by Danny Trejo, in an obvious bit of stunt casting. As is prone to happen when Kumar's around, weed gets involved and within minutes, the family Christmas tree Harold was supposed to impeccably decorate gets burnt down. A ludicrous journey ensues in which dick jokes, dope references and meta-puns abound. Watch as a little girl fiends for cocaine, a claymation carnage scene takes advantage of the film's R rating and Neil Patrick Harris gets booted out of heaven for horning in on Jesus Christ's angel booty. With copious, lazy, winking 3D gags – the pointlessness of their 2D presentation possibly rendering them funnier than intended – and the most aggressive product placement this side of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Harold and Kumar's latest exercise in bonding over life lessons in absurd situations is no longer pretending to be anything other than a mediocre, self-aware franchise that revels in immature titillation. Only Neil Patrick Harris continues to nail the balance; his creepy lampooning of his public persona is the all-too-brief highlight of the picture, especially with Elias Koteas substituting for the much funnier Christopher Meloni this time around. Thomas Lennon, as Harold's strait-laced new best bud and father of the aforementioned crack baby, is underutilized, but gets a chance to make up for it a bit with the only special feature segment worth watching. In "Through the Haze With Thomas Lennon," the Reno 911 vet basically just talks shit in his particular way, but if you're a fan, it's worth it. The rest of the features are rather desultory: a pointless handful of deleted scenes and a look at the claymation scene, which is actually just a few words from the director and a picture-in-picture view of the storyboard as the sequence plays out. It's obvious that the passion for, and from, these characters never made it out of White Castle, and not even a room full of naked nuns with crucifix pubes showering in 3D can distract from that fact.