Hardly a franchise grounded in reality to begin with, Harold And Kumar appears to have embraced being totally, completely absurd in its third installment, which features, among other things, the stoner duo shooting Santa Claus in the face, a Claymation sequence, and a scene where Jesus lords over Heaven’s hottest nightclub. But perhaps most notable about this first look at A Very Harold And Kumar 3-D Christmas is how relentlessly self-aware it is. As our own Steven Hyden recently pointed out, Neil Patrick Harris’ self-parodying cameo in the first Harold And Kumar remains one the most successful examples of the approach’s potential for reinvention. And while the references to the real-life Harris being gay keep that particular joke going in this trailer (which gives Harris almost as much screen time as either ostensible stars John Cho or Kal Penn), that self-awareness now extends to the whole movie—specifically its hacky, gimmicky 3-D effects, which Christmas hopes to transform into ironic commentary through the open acknowledgment of just how hacky and gimmicky they are. Or, you know, maybe they’re still just hacky and gimmicky. Honestly, right now we’re just happy to pretend it’s Christmas while it’s 100 fucking degrees out.
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