(L to R) John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris and Kal Penn
star in “A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas”
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
It has been six years since the wacky duo teamed for a movie. John Cho (as Harold) and Kal Penn (as Kumar) reprise their title roles in "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," in theatres across the country.
These two have grown apart, lead separate lives and have introduced new friends into their chaos. Now, it Christmas and they come together again for raucous mayhem and loads of silliness. Harold Lee (Cho) has married and his in-laws are coming for a visit bringing the prized Christmas tree, a sacred family tradition. A mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar's door on Christmas Eve and he attempts to redirect it to Harold's house. Full of "high grade" contents, it explodes and the cherished Christmas tree goes up in smoke. With his in-laws out of the house for the day, Harold decides to cover his tracks, rather than come clean. Reluctantly embarking on another ill-advised journey with Kumar through New York City, their search for the perfect replacement tree takes them through party heaven—and almost blows Christmas Eve sky high.
3D Christmas is the third installment in the Harold and Kumar franchise; previous cult hits are "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" followed by "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay."
Happily returning for the latest romp is Neil Patrick Harris, along with Paula Garces (TV's "Defying Gravity") as Maria; Danneel Harris ("The Roommate") as Vanessa; Eddie Kaye Thomas (the "American Pie" movies) as Rosenberg; David Krumholtz ("Mr. Popper's Penguins") as Goldstein; and Bobby Lee ("Pineapple Express") as Kenneth Park.
Joining the ensemble are Tom Lennon ("I Love You Man") as Harold's new best friend, Todd; Amir Blumenfeld (TV's "Pranked") as Kumar's new best friend Adrian; Danny Trejo ("Machete") as Harold's father-in-law; and Elias Koteas ("Shutter Island") as Ukranian mob boss Sergei Katsov. Rounding out the cast are Patton Oswalt ("The Informant!"), Richard Riehle ("Halloween II"), Jordan Hinson (TV's "Eureka"), John Hoogenakker ("Contagion"), Jake Johnson ("No Strings Attached"), Yasen Payankov ("Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon") and David Burtka (TV's "How I Met Your Mother").
The movie has a wonderful array of multicultural talent and the 3D is extraordinary.
When I sat with the trio --Cho, Penn and Harris-- to discuss 3D Christmas, I also inquired about Penn’s work in the White House for the Obama Administration, asking specifically about his experience and if he could see incorporating any of it into a future Harold and Kumar movie. To that he replied, “I don’t think so. I think what I love about both worlds is that they are so separate. I love being creative and frivolous with movies like this...I love public service, I love the seriousness and cerebral element of living in Washington and I love the creativity of a profession like this. So, to me, they are totally separate.
“I think the only thing that is perhaps even remotely similar that gets us kind of emotional is when we get tweets or little notes from the troops overseas. We had the chance to do a couple of USO tours the last few years and it was just awesome to hear from these 18, 19 year old kids who tell you that comedy keeps them going when they are out there.”
Cho, his cohort added, “Well, for one, you are looking at the soldiers who are so young; you are overwhelmed by their youth. Then, on the other hand, it’s another thing when they’ve seen your work and it’s something to distract them, it’s something to make them chuckle for a few minutes. There is no greater honor than to be a part of distracting them from the serious nature of their work.”
Many are comparing the Harold and Kumar franchise to the Cheech and Chong movies for a new generation. To this side-by-side, Cho and Penn replied, “We’re very flattered to hear that because we don’t’ think of ourselves as being iconic in that respect. It’s s compliment. We don’t view these as exclusively stoner movies compared to movies like Cheech and Chong or Pineapple Express or movies that are legit stoner movies. Harold and Kumar actually aren’t high for very much of their movies. And when they are high only bad things happen to them so that’s sort of very different than the others.
“It was surprising to us that we, that stoners responded as strongly to the movie as they did because we always felt that there was not that much pot smoking and didn’t seem all that fun. However, when we are compared to that duo, that’s very high praise. We consider our primary work on the movies to be believable as friends. We feel like so many other people in the cast do the comedy heavy lifting whether it’s Neal Patrick Harris, Tom Lennon or whoever it is. Everyone is funny and our job is that people believe we’re really friends.”
The cast is 3D Christmas is very multicultural; no one is left out. To that assertion, they respond, “Making fun of culture and race and using that to poke fun has been what we’ve done since the first movie. It was finally great to get an opportunity to play the in-law stuff because it was a way to make “Asian Latino” jokes about discomfort. Paula was very helpful too with Spanish puns and stuff like that so I hope that a Spanish speaking audience particularly enjoys that section because there are a few Spanish specific jokes.”
Neil Patrick Harris gets to sing in 3D Christmas, one of his many talents. The star of stage TV and film stated, “Singing in this movie was fun. I’m glad it was a Christmas movie because I’m not the biggest fan of singing out of context, I’m not a big karaoke fan. I don’t really like going on cruise ships to sing where I’m at a piano with a drink in my hand. But when it’s a Christmas medley that seemed like it made more sense, it was good for me as an actor. I was playing that I was high on crack so it allowed for this kind of super exuberance while I was singing and dancing that I would normally find kind of cheesy. When you realize that I’m not entirely sober while I’m doing it [in 3D Christmas], it makes more sense when you watch it again.’
Harris, still a young man at 38, began his career very early, many remembering him from the 90’s TV series Doogie Howser, MD, still beloved by millions. Asked about his satisfaction with the pace of his career to date, he shared, “I’m very content with how things are going right now. The last couple of years have been very full of many different types of work, which for me is good. How I Met Your Mother is kind of a dream job: the work load is a lot but sporadic enough that you are able to have an actual life. I have a great personal life and during my off time, I get to do random things like Harold and Kumar, hosting gigs and sitting in for Regis (Philbin). I get to do books on tape and lots of weird little gigs that are fun for me. If I can keep doing that I’d be very happy. I’d love to maybe do more directing, maybe a little more hosting, but again, these are things that I’m a little errant to talk about while I’m currently doing How I Met Your Mother. I don’t want it to seem that I’m wishing that I could get off the show to do something else because I would love to ride that wave as long as they will have us. But, when that’s done I wouldn’t mind doing something where I don’t have to memorize so many lines. I wouldn’t mind reading a teleprompter for a few years.”
