Hard as it is to believe, this movie is actually a vicious satire.
I say "hard as it is to believe" because on the surface, it looks like a stoner movie, and nothing else (kind of like "Dude, Where's My Car?", the movie Danny Leiner directed before this one). But unlike DWMC, I think you should look deeper with this one.
The movie is basically kicked off when Harold (an Asian-American played by John Cho, the MILF guy from "American Pie") and Kumar (an Indian-American played by Kal Penn, the Indian assistant from "Van Wilder") are sitting around getting high, and they see a commercial for White Castle on TV (yes, it's a real place, and I don't know if they exist elsewhere, but the only one I've ever been to was in New Jersey too), and they decide to go to White Castle. So the movie can be viewed as an hour-and-a-half long commercial for White Castle. But really, it's a satire of product placement in movies; they take your basic product placement and base the whole movie around it, thus exaggerating the concept of product placement and elevating this movie to the level of satire.
Think about it. It is definitely not a real "commercial"; no company would honestly advertise themselves with such a vulgar and offensive movie. Therefore it is a satire. And if you look at it that way, it's an extremely funny satire. The main target is consumerism, but they touch on a lot of other topics; also satirized is the plight of Americans of foreign descent, drug culture (and you know, I swear I know people just like the characters in this movie), medical culture, the police and their treatment of minorities, and even Hollywood culture, in the form of Neil Patrick Harris playing "himself". It's all wildly funny, but realistic in an exaggerated way. It's a brilliant satire.
It also has a lot of great cameos; watch for David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas (also from "American Pie"), Bobby Lee (from MadTV), Fred Willard, Ryan Reynolds (also from "Van Wilder"), Ethan Embry (from "Can't Hardly Wait"), Anthony Anderson, and in particular Christopher Meloni (from "Oz" and "Law and Order: SVU"), who is barely recognizable as a loony, deformed mechanic appropriately named Freakshow. The movie is full of memorable dialogue and situations. This is not "Dude, Where's My Car?" (which I also thought was a very good movie, despite appearances); this is much better. Watch it with an open mind and you'll see that it works on many levels, and I think it deserves to be considered a great movie.
I say "hard as it is to believe" because on the surface, it looks like a stoner movie, and nothing else (kind of like "Dude, Where's My Car?", the movie Danny Leiner directed before this one). But unlike DWMC, I think you should look deeper with this one.
The movie is basically kicked off when Harold (an Asian-American played by John Cho, the MILF guy from "American Pie") and Kumar (an Indian-American played by Kal Penn, the Indian assistant from "Van Wilder") are sitting around getting high, and they see a commercial for White Castle on TV (yes, it's a real place, and I don't know if they exist elsewhere, but the only one I've ever been to was in New Jersey too), and they decide to go to White Castle. So the movie can be viewed as an hour-and-a-half long commercial for White Castle. But really, it's a satire of product placement in movies; they take your basic product placement and base the whole movie around it, thus exaggerating the concept of product placement and elevating this movie to the level of satire.
Think about it. It is definitely not a real "commercial"; no company would honestly advertise themselves with such a vulgar and offensive movie. Therefore it is a satire. And if you look at it that way, it's an extremely funny satire. The main target is consumerism, but they touch on a lot of other topics; also satirized is the plight of Americans of foreign descent, drug culture (and you know, I swear I know people just like the characters in this movie), medical culture, the police and their treatment of minorities, and even Hollywood culture, in the form of Neil Patrick Harris playing "himself". It's all wildly funny, but realistic in an exaggerated way. It's a brilliant satire.
It also has a lot of great cameos; watch for David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas (also from "American Pie"), Bobby Lee (from MadTV), Fred Willard, Ryan Reynolds (also from "Van Wilder"), Ethan Embry (from "Can't Hardly Wait"), Anthony Anderson, and in particular Christopher Meloni (from "Oz" and "Law and Order: SVU"), who is barely recognizable as a loony, deformed mechanic appropriately named Freakshow. The movie is full of memorable dialogue and situations. This is not "Dude, Where's My Car?" (which I also thought was a very good movie, despite appearances); this is much better. Watch it with an open mind and you'll see that it works on many levels, and I think it deserves to be considered a great movie.