Before I go on, I'd just like to say that I congratulate the filmmakers for setting the film in New Jersey.  Yes, that's where I live, and rarely do I see studio films set in NJ.  There's even a scene where Harold drives around Hoboken and can't find a spot.  Anybody who's been to Hoboken knows that it's almost impossible to find a parking spot anywhere!  So that was a nice tip-of-the-hat to us New Jerseyans.  And needless to say, it's nice to see a film with an Korean-American and Indian-American as its stars.  

      Even though we're now in the year 2004, the movie industry is still pretty racist.  Blacks and Hispanics are getting better (though still not great) opportunities in finding good roles.  If an actor has a thick accent and poor control of the English language, I can understand his or her difficulty in finding decent roles (I still don't condone Jackie Chan's concept of doing drama).  But there are a lot of actors who are from this country and happen to be of foreign descent, who simply can't get a break.  Kal Penn has been in "Malibu's Most Wanted" and "Van Wilder," but in both films he had to don a cheesy accent and play the stereotypical Middle-Eastern character (though he's not even from the Middle East).  So it's a relief to finally see an Indian-American actor use his real accent, and the same with a Korean-American.

      OK, now that I'm done with my sermon, I was laughing from start to finish!  The problem with most comedies nowadays is not that they contain lots of crude and sex-related humor, but it's that they don't know how to handle it.  The gags in this film are handled in a way that's witty and doesn't insult the audience's intelligence (which probably explains the amazingly positive reactions from major crtiics).  There's one scene where Kumar fantasizes about a huge bag of marijuana, like it's his lover.  It's scenes like that which separate this from many of the trashy teen comedies.

      The day after I saw this movie I actually went to White Castle--a place I haven't been to in quite a while.  I don't think that's a coincidence.  I heard the filmmakers couldn't get the rights from other fast food chains, like McDonald's and Burger King.  Boy, are they terrible sports!