A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas Information

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is a 2011 3D stoner comedy Christmas film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and starring John Cho, Kal Penn, and Neil Patrick Harris. The main plot follows Harold (Cho) and Kumar (Penn), two estranged friends who embark on an adventure to find a new Christmas tree after Kumar destroys the original. It is a sequel to the 2008 film Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and the third installment in the Harold & Kumar film series. The film was released on November 4, 2011, and is the first installment of the series to be shown in 3D.

Plot

Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) prepares for the holidays by visiting Santa Claus at a shopping mall. Later, the same Santa (Patton Oswalt) sells him cannabis in the mall's parking garage. Since being dumped by Vanessa (Danneel Harris), Kumar has let himself go; he has not become a doctor since failing a drug test, and still lives in the messy apartment that he once shared with Harold Lee (John Cho), who has become a successful businessman on Wall Street. Harold's assistant, Kenneth (Bobby Lee), persuades him to buy a 3D television as a gift for Harold's father-in-law. As Harold and Kenneth leave the building, they are attacked by Occupy protesters who throw eggs at them. Vanessa visits Kumar and tells him that she is pregnant with his child, shocking him. The two get into an argument and Vanessa leaves.

After arriving home, Harold is seduced by his wife Maria (Paula Garcés), but their attempt to conceive is interrupted by the arrival of her father (Danny Trejo), who dislikes Harold. He explains to Harold that he has never had a perfect Christmas, and is counting on Harold to make this one the best for his daughter. He has brought a tree that he has grown for eight years and deemed the perfect Christmas tree. When a package addressed to Harold arrives at Kumar's apartment, Kumar decides to deliver it to Harold. The package turns out to be a large marijuana joint that Kumar cannot resist smoking. Since Harold has gotten married and does not get high anymore, he throws the lit joint out of the window and it 'magically' flies back into another window and lands on the tree, causing a fire that destroys it. To replace it, Harold reserves one of the last Christmas trees available at a nearby lot. Kumar, feeling bad that he may have ruined Christmas for Harold, decides to purchase a replacement tree, and bribes the tree lot into selling him the tree that Harold reserved. When Harold sees the car with the tree drive away, he pursues it, and the car with Kumar's tree crashes and explodes on the highway, destroying the tree. Harold argues with Kumar before they introduce each other to their new friends. Harold, Kumar, Todd, Adrian along with Todd's daughter drive to a party in New York to retrieve a Christmas tree at Adrian's partner's party. Things take a turn for the worse, and Harold and Kumar ultimately end up participating in a Christmas show featuring Neil Patrick Harris, hoping he can help them get a tree.

After a wild night of performing on Broadway, getting kidnapped by Ukrainian gangsters, accidentally shooting Santa Claus (Richard Riehle) and performing emergency surgery on him, Harold invites Kumar to his Christmas party the following day. That evening, Kumar sneaks through Vanessa's window and states that he will stop smoking marijuana for the sake of her baby and will re-take the exams to become a doctor. Harold returns to Maria's house with her father waiting on the couch. The two argue until Harold explains he might not be the perfect son-in-law, but he is the perfect man for Maria. Maria's father reveals that while he always knew Harold was a nice guy, he wanted to make sure he had some "cojones" before accepting him into the Perez Family. Harold and Kumar celebrate Christmas together along with their families.

Cast

• John Cho as Harold Lee
• Kal Penn as Kumar Patel
• Neil Patrick Harris as "Neil Patrick Harris"
• Danny Trejo as Mr. Perez
• Danneel Harris as Vanessa Fanning
• Elias Koteas as Sergei Katsov
• Paula Garcés as Maria Perez-Lee
• Thomas Lennon as Todd
• Patton Oswalt as Larry Juston/Mall Santa
• Eddie Kaye Thomas as Andy Rosenberg
• David Krumholtz as Seth Goldstein
• Amir Blumenfeld as Adrian
• Richard Riehle as Santa Claus
• Jordan Hinson as Mary
• John Hoogenakker as Gustav
• Jake Johnson as Jesus
• Bobby Lee as Kenneth Park
• Yasen Peyankov as Yuri
• Melissa Ordway as Gracie
• RZA as Lamar
• Da 'Vone McDonald as Latrell
• Brett Gelman as T.V. Director
• David Burtka as David Burtka

Production

In April 2009, Kal Penn accepted the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Obama administration; when asked if his new job would mean no more Harold and Kumar films, he said, "That's probably true for now." However, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas was announced on May 7, 2009, for release on December 5, 2010 at the earliest and possibly deferred to the 2011 holiday season. Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg returned to write the film while Todd Strauss-Schulson directed and Greg Shapiro returned as producer. Penn left his job with the White House on June 1, 2010 to reprise his role as Kumar in the third Harold & Kumar installment.

Filming took place in Detroit, Michigan, then Los Angeles and New York City from June to August 2010, with the use of Panavision Genesis and Element Technica 3D Rig. The film was released in RealD 3D on November 4, 2011. Animators of Laika created the clay animation scene.

After filming was completed, Penn returned to the White House. Cho and Penn went on a tour to promote the film in different college towns. At each stop they had a bus hand out "munchies".

Reception

Critical response

Reviews of the film were positive. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 69% of 121 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.2 out of 10. The website's consensus is, "Still raunchy, still irreverent, and still hit-and-miss, this Harold & Kumar outing also has a Christmas miracle: The audience gets to see the sweeter side of the duo." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 61 based on 28 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying "It's not that I was particularly offended; it's that I didn't laugh very much."

Box office

During its first weekend, the film opened at third place behind Puss in Boots and Tower Heist, grossing approximately $13.1 million and underperforming its prediction of $18 million. The film has earned a total of $35,061,031 in North America as of January 12, 2012.