Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay

Too much melodrama

HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTÁNAMO BAY: Bong? Bomb? What the heck . . .

Fans of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: they’re back and sharing a big fat doobie with George Bush. How the lads (John Cho and Kal Penn) wind up in Gitmo has to do with a “bong” being mistaken for a “bomb.” They don’t hang around long, however, breaking out and fleeing across the South (they believe there’s help in Texas), with Homeland Security hot on their tails. Race factors large (Harold is Korean and Kumar’s an East Indian oft taken for a terrorist) and provocatively. Still, the madcap pace lags: director Jon Hurwitz, who penned the original, knows comic delivery but not comic timing. And the romantic threads tangle the laughs in too much melodrama. The tone shifts erratically, but not enough to blunt the appeal of a bottomless bikini party or Neil Patrick Harris downing ’shrooms and ravaging a whorehouse. 102 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Harvard Square + Circle + Arlington Capitol + suburbs