Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay does not live up to its 2004 predecessor. Not even close. Without seeing the 2004 film where the two over-achieving stoners make a trip to White Castle, this may sound like an underwhelming statement. But director Danny Leiner had a lot more on his mind than making a slacker road flick littered with hamburger slider. Underneath the gags, there was a really sharp analysis of the modern immigration plight.

Harold (John Cho) was Korean-American and suffered for overachieving for under-appreciative bosses. He was so brow-beaten he couldn’t say hello to his beautiful neighbor Maria (Paula Garces). Kumar (Kal Penn) just wants to party but his domineering father continues to push him to medical school; a feat Kumar could easily accomplish. As they race across New Jersey from dead end to dead end, they face all sorts of ridiculous racism and xenophobia that is combated in the best way possible: by marginalizing it with humor. This ignorance in this first film was part of the larger issue being addressed: That the goal of these two big-brained stoners was no success in life but to get to White Castle. The presence of Neil Patrick Harris playing himself as an out-of-control celebrity existed just to show people wanted to be like him (“NPH” as he is called affectionately) but not Doogie Howser, the teenaged doctor he help make famous.

Yes, I took a lot of flak for this when I was one of the few of my contemporaries who caught this in the theater. Once White Castle blew up on cable and DVD, everyone followed through. So let me be one of the first to say that Guantanamo Bay does far less with far more. It’s ambitious with a plot that shows the detainee camp in Cuba, KKK rallies, Homeland Security, and even a chance encounter with President Bush. We pick up with the boys right after the first film with Harold and Kumar on to way to Amsterdam when they are mistaken for terrorists on the cross-Atlantic flight. The plane is grounded and HSA agents (personified by Rob Corddry and Roger Bart) have them thrown into Guantanamo Bay, which is depicted as a cross between frat house and Abu Ghraib. They escape and hitch a ride with a raft full of refugees (funnier than it sounds) and head to the South. Kumar’s ex-girlfriend – who he has a thing for and becomes an integral part of the plot – is engaged to a bigwig (Eric Winter) under the President and our heroes see him as their only chance of clearing their good names.

As they hit the road, they run into the above-mentioned Klan members and even cross paths again with NPH. The struggles and travails from the first film still exist but there’s something about the heightened plot that shows the limit of comedy. In the first film, hate crimes and police brutality got a sublimely underscored treatment because the context was a fast-food run. With a release in 2004, the war on terror and racial tensions were of course on the audiences mind. The sheer triviality of the situations made these matters more profound in a funny sort of way. With this now replacing the focus of Harold and Kumar’s plight, the humor has a Herculean task of rising to that level. Needless to say, few films could pull this off.

The fact that Guantanamo Bay is mildly successful in being funny is almost enough. The initial scene where the Indian-American is accused of being al-Qaeda (despite the fact that being a certain skin color does not make on Middle Eastern) is handled very well. As is the Klan rally where Harold and Kumar go under cover (or is it under-sheets) to find out the gathering is more moronic keg party than devious ceremony. Can it even be said that the encounter with the President is perhaps his most flattering in cinema. His adamant supporters may say there aren’t many positive depictions to choose from, but even they would be surprised by the interaction here.

All of this is very funny, even if first time directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (who wrote the original and wrote this as well) have trouble with tone and consistency. Perhaps faring worst is Corddry, whose comedic training on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart shows he knows how to milk a joke but not able to do that and make an interesting character at the same time. But, in a time where fear and uncertainty undermine our notions of identity and culture, it’s good to laugh. Harold and Kumar, in their own way, help us to do that. I know this sounds unbelievable but trust me: Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay is smarter than it lets on.

If you dare, the film is Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug use.

2 Cheech and Chong + 1 Borat = 3 Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay