Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The flick presented a good but unexceptional picture.
Sharpness usually looked fine. Some softness interfered, mostly during wider shots. Nonetheless, the majority of the movie was appropriately concise and well-defined. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, but I saw some mild edge enhancement at times. No significant print concerns appeared. The movie looked a bit grainy at times, but otherwise the movie lacked any noticeable defects.
Colors worked well. A couple of shots were slightly flat, but usually the movie showed well-developed tones. The hues were tight and lively most of the time. Blacks seemed deep and firm, while low-light shots demonstrated good clarity and definition. The image never became exceptional, but it usually appeared good.
Similar thoughts greeted the DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. As with most comedies, the soundfield emphasized the front channels. The music displayed good imaging, and effects broadened to the sides well. They presented a nice sense of atmosphere and kicked into action nicely when appropriate.
Surround usage rarely took center stage, but they added to the presentation at times. The influential White Castle commercial at the movie’s start spread vividly to the rears, and a few other shots like a thunderstorm and the arrival of Freak Show’s truck added life to the back channels. The surrounds lacked great involvement, but they worked fine for this sort of flick.
Audio quality was quite good. Speech came across as natural and crisp, with no issues connected to edginess or intelligibility. Effects were clear and accurate. They showed good range and clarity as well. Music worked very nicely, especially in regard to the mix of source songs. Those presented strong definition and liveliness, and the whole package showed tight, rich bass. Again, there wasn’t anything special about the soundtrack, but it seemed more than acceptable for the material.
How did this Blu-ray compare to the 2004 DVD? Audio offered similar sonic scope but sounded a bit warmer and fuller. Visuals came across as moderately tighter and better defined as well. The Blu-ray didn’t blow away the DVD, but it demonstrated decent improvements.
The disc offers the same supplements as the DVD plus a couple of new ones. The disc comes with a whopping three audio commentaries. The first one presents director Danny Leiner and actors Kal Penn and John Cho, all of whom sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion. Don’t expect a lot of hard data in this very anecdotal commentary. The participants go over various story elements at times and let us know what it was like to work together and with the other folks, but mainly they joke around and yak about their general experiences.
A lot of praise pops up along the way, and sometimes we just hear the names of various participants. Nonetheless, the track maintains a nicely amiable energy. It moves briskly and manages to entertain, even if it doesn’t do much to inform.
For the next commentary, we hear from writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg plus Harold Lee, the real-life inspiration for the movie’s title character. All three sit together for their running, screen-specific chat. This commentary’s just as amiable and fun as the prior one, and it also includes quite a lot of good information. We learn a lot about the aspects of the writers’ lives that influenced the story, coming up with the tale and gags, and changes from script to screen. We also hear about influences along with quite a few good anecdotes. It’s an irreverent and educational chat that works quite well.
Finally, we get an “Extreme Commentary” with Extreme Sports Punk #1 Danny Bochart. He presents a running, screen-specific discussion that sporadically gives us information about the making of the movie. Bochart talks a little about his casting and also tosses out the occasional anecdote from the set. However, mostly he sits with us as an observer who offers his thoughts on the material. It’s very much connected to his interpretation of the gags and his real-life take on things. Bochart’s a pretty gregarious guy, which some might interpret as obnoxiousness. At times, that’s how I saw things, but Bochart manages to be moderately entertaining. Though it’s a pretty pointless commentary, Bochart makes it reasonably fun.
One disappointing aspect of the commentaries: no one ever discusses changes between the theatrical version and the unrated one. I presume the participants watched the latter as they chatted, but we get no information about changes made for the unrated edition.
For the next component, we get John Cho and Kal Penn: The Backseat Interview. This 12-minute and 58-second piece shows the guys as actor Bobby Lee drives them around LA and asks questions. A few tidbits of information emerge, but mostly it’s played for laughs, with lots of gay jokes and not much else.
Called The Art of the Fart, the next featurette runs 10 minutes and 39 seconds. In it, we hear from Leiner and sound designer Jeff Kushner as they discuss the recording of the movie’s diarrhea sequence. Possibly the most disgusting featurette I’ve seen, this one takes a very tongue in cheek attitude as we see Kushner’s alleged methods. Like the “Backseat Interview”, it’s moderately amusing and that’s it.
A mix of short interview clips appear in an area called Cast and Crew Clips . We get eight of these, and they run between one minute, 42 seconds and four minutes, 17 seconds for a total of 20 minutes, four seconds of footage. We get comments from Leiner, Hurvitz, Schlossberg, actors Fred Willard, Neil Patrick Harris, Brooke D’Orsay, Kate Kelton, Steve Braun, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, and Paula Garces. The emphasis stays on general notes, without a lot of insight. We get some decent remarks about casting from a few of the performers, but fluff dominates these mostly insubstantial interviews.
For the next featurette, we findA Trip to the Land of Burgers. In this 10-minute and 44-second piece, we look at one of the movie’s surreal sequences. It presents remarks from Leiner, editor Jeff Betancourt, and graphic designer Chevon Hicks. They discuss the concept of the segment, problems with it, and its ultimate execution. A relief after the various fluffy bits that came before it, “Trip” is very informative and interesting as it covers the complicated sequence.
Under White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame, we hear from Penn, Cho, Schlossberg, Hurwitz, Leiner, White Castle’s Jamie Richardson, and inductees Ken Muxie and Charlie Evranian. This three-minute, eight-second piece is a glossy promotional clip and not anything more. It goes to a White Castle event and touts the movie.
Two components look at the film’s sequel. We get a Sneak Peek for Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (15:06) as well as that film’s “red band” trailer. These were more useful before Bay came out.
After this we get eight Deleted/Alternate Scenes. All together, these fill 11 minutes and 51 seconds. Most of these add minor extensions to existing bits, and a lot of them concern Freakshow. The most significant added piece alters the ending to add Luis Guzman. None of them are terribly interesting.
We can watch the scenes with or without commentary from Leiner, Cho and Penn. They tell us a little about the scenes and sometimes relate why the sequences got the boot, though not often enough. That’s the most important element of this sort of commentary, so the absence of that content makes the track less useful.
At the end of the deleted/alternate scenes area, we get a collection of Outtakes. This two-minute, 41-second compilation really offers very small trims and unused takes of bits. It’s not the standard giggles and goofs package, which makes it more interesting than usual.
One music video pops up here. We get “Yeah (Dream of Me)” by All Too Much. Mostly it shows the standard movie clips, but it also attempts an actual story in which some stud hits on a babe. It’s not much, but it’s a little better than the average video from a film. We also find two trailers for White Castle.
Beyond the unusual ethnicity of its leads, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle presents pretty standard teen comedy fare. It spurts out some laughs but also drags a lot of the time and never becomes much better than average. The Blu-ray delivers good but unexceptional picture and sound along with a pretty solid set of extras highlighted by three separate audio commentaries. This isn’t a great movie or Blu-ray, but it’s reasonably positive on both accounts.
To rate this film, visit the Unrated Special Edition review of HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE
