A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas (2011)

It's the holiday season and, surprisingly enough, there are only two big Christmas movies being given wide release this year: the animated family comedy Arthur Christmas and the foul, crude comedy A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas. This is the third film in a franchise I guess I didn't realize was actually making money. The first outing, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle was actually decent stoner comedy, while Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was a little less decent. Now we have this third adventure under the thin guise of holiday joviality, which mostly revolves around Harold trying to find the perfect Christmas tree after Kumar accidentally sets the previous one ablaze. There are lots of and lots of R-rated jokes revolving primarily around illegal drugs and lewd behavior. None of this is a surprise to viewers who actually go into these films expecting "shock humor," a style I simply am not fond of. However, I almost guiltily found myself laughing on several occasions, which I suppose proves that this is one of the examples of low-brow humor that can succeed in being funny without ever actually being good.

Let's face it: comedy is completely subjective. You never know what will actually make you laugh, and when you do, it's nobody's fault. If I laugh out loud at the image of a child being scalded by extremely hot syrup, that doesn't mean it's good material. I happened to find it funny at the time and would probably chuckle if I saw it again. The point being that this is not a clever movie, nor is it very original or all that well-made. For example, this movie takes the relatively realistic screwball comedy approach of the original and turns it into a completely fantasy-based adventure. Scenes involving the real Santa Claus and Neil Patrick Harris being kicked out of Heaven are absurd to say the least. Then again, this is the movie containing a drug-inspired animated sequence involving a giant killer snowman. There are also many jokes pertaining to the fact that the movie is in 3-D, something the creators obviously thought was hilarious. Great measures are gone to to make sure that we understand that the characters understand they're in a 3-D movie. Actually, they all seem to be in on some inside joke. Like the scene in which a guy's car is completely totaled. He leaps out of it and is only worried about how he will now reach his party.

Did I mention there's some gross stuff in here, too? At one point, Harold gets his member stuck to a pole, as in A Christmas Story, and the manner in which he removes it is quite painful. This scene, and others like it, should not be funny, yet I laughed. Perhaps I'm not getting the joke I'm actually laughing at. Maybe these people know they couldn't possibly make a good movie, so they made a bad one as best they could. In a way, it works. I wouldn't have laughed at all if the same jokes had been delivered a different way, so I guess there's some good to it all. Just don't be expecting anything all that festive. It is Christmas themed, sure, but the most heartfelt moment is when Kumar's girlfriend offers him her urine for a drug test. How romantic. In short, you will enjoy it or hate it and you know who you are. I can see this becoming one of the seasonal favorites of the more cheer-deprived viewers among us, akin to Bad Santa. If the sight of a toddler getting very, very wasted, or large animated genitals being thrust at the screen, or Santa being graphically shot in the head offend you, well, I applaud your good taste.

6/10