Dude, where's my Asians?
That might be the best way to describe Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, which I saw in a press screening that had as many security guards and movie reps as people actually attending. Oh well, it fit into my schedule better than the big shindig with the stars the next night. That lack of an audience probably didn't help me try to find as many funny bit as I would in a full theater.

Nonetheless, the film really does seem as, this review notes, a rewrite of Dude, Where's My Car? -- not a surprise because it's the same director at work here. Except instead of Stifler and Kelso, you get (as the ads note) the Asian guy from the American Pie movies and the Indian guy from Van Wilder -- and some typical Asian stereotypes, sorta: one's an up-and-coming analyst, the other aced his MCATs and is applying to med school. But they both like to get baked, and with a case of the munchies, they're trying to find White Castle.

From there, the journey goes through all sorts of wackiness up and down New Jersey in search of the famed burgers. No Zartan or space aliens this time, but there is a tripped-out Doogie Howser, a stop-off at Princeton, an encounter with a boil-filled redneck (they exist in NJ?) and his hot wife, plus Anthony Anderson (who you can recognize) and Jamie Kennedy (who you really can't), plus Finch and Van Wilder (to help support their previous supporting players). It's all silly and goofy, and yes, it probably works better if you're high, but it's funny nonetheless.

However, being a New Jersey native, and with the action taking place in the Garden State (but of course filmed mostly in Canada), trying to figure out the geography of the movie would encourage you to toke up. So as not to spoil the movie even more than I already have, I'll hold off on posting the map until the movie officially comes out. But in the meantime, here's a list of White Castles the guys couldn't find.

One of the stranger things about the movie was how much I could've had flashbacks to college since Kumar looks a lot like my freshman year roommate Sanjay. But I don't look like John Cho, and the stoners were the guys next door to us. However, a White Castle run could've been in the cards -- there were a few in Chicago. So much for reality.