With its crude gags and doped-up double-act, Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies is the kind of comedy that was bound to "generate a fervent cult following". John Cho and Kal Penn vie to become the next Cheech & Chong in this tripped-out tale of two buddies who are busting for a burger. Surprisingly most critics gave it the thumbs up. Must be something in the beef...
A Great Pair Of Baps
According to director Danny Leiner, the script "undercuts and makes jokes about" ethnic cultures because it's "the best way of dispelling myths about stereotypes" - oh, yeah and there are boobs too! Elsewhere in a mostly straight-faced 'making of' featurette Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg explain why they ditched careers in finance to write a screenplay: "We figured if we could write something that was as at least as good as the worst comedy that was out there, then hopefully they could make ours instead of that one." You've got to love the ambition...
Hurwitz and Schlossberg talk more about the process of development in one of three audio commentaries, but steer clear of the Extreme Commentary with film extra Danny Bouchard, who thought he was signing up for a part in Big Fish... The track featuring Leiner, Cho and Penn is a little too laidback (with the trio cheering every walk-on actor in the style of a 70s sitcom), but there are a few good behind-the-scenes titbits - that is to say trivia, not more boob jokes. For example, Cho reveals that Penn's "incessant farting" in the car actually helped his performance. Perhaps he should be thanking the dodgy catering.
Having A Gas
Farting figures pretty highly in Leiner's comedy repertoire as revealed in The Art Of The Fart featurette. Cameras follow sound designer Jeff Kushner as he secrets himself in a public toilet to record authentic diarrhoea sounds for a key scene in the film. (Of course it's just a spoof but try telling that to the guy who's got to clean the mic heads.) A Trip To The Land Of Burgers is a slightly more serious treatment of what Leiner names his favourite scene in the movie. Along with a showcase of behind-the-scenes green-screen footage, he talks about using "flash art" CGI to create the trippy visuals.
Cho And Penn are in the backseat of co-star Bobby Lee's car for an interview that's full of bizarre left turns. In comparing themselves to their characters, Penn confesses that, "I have no attention span," while Cho admits he trims his short and curlies. It's rare we say it, but this is just too much information.
In keeping with the tone, Luis Guzmán makes an appearance in a selection of eight deleted scenes that will ensure you never look at a lollipop in the same way again. Meanwhile a reel of outtakes plays like an amateur porn video that's sure to get animal lovers very hot under the collar - and we don't mean members of the RSPCA.
To say the least, Harold & Kumar is a cheeky package on DVD. Besides the feel-good factor, a few tasty behind-the-scenes morsels are just enough to keep the munchies at bay.
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