This Weekend: Harold and Kumar, Baby Mama, Deception

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay [watch the trailer]: The original Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle [watch the trailer] film was a breakthrough, in that a stoner comedy hit that could have easily starred Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott [watch Dude Where's My Car?] instead featured a Korean (John Cho) and an Indian (Kal Penn) in decidedly non-stereotypical roles, even as pseudo-romantic leads.

Now they’re back in a sequel, further proving that there are no boundaries on who can be funny. Set a day after the 2004 film, Harold decides to follow his whim and his love interest on her trip to Amsterdam, although airline mishaps cause them to be mistaken for terrorists, which only continues when insanely stupid racist Agent Ron Fox (Rob Corddry) believes they’re evidence of North Korea and Al-Qaeda working together. One might think this means the comedy world is expanding into the realm of biting political satire, but as evidenced by the fact that they’re only in Gittmo for about ten minutes in the middle of the film, it’s mostly head-feinting towards relevance, then veering back into the realm of zany hijinks with Whacked Out Dynamo Neil Patrick Harris. And it’s a lot of fun.

Cho and Penn have the same fluid odd-couple chemistry working for them, and Penn’s relaxed troublemaking sarcasm gets some depth as we learn he’s more than just an apathetic slacker - we meet the woman who turned him onto weed and off of being an uptight overachiever, the love of his life. Corddy is so gung-ho in this antagonistic goofball riff on Lt. Gerard in The Fugitive, and the satirical faux-reporter schtick he honed on The Daily Show serves this parody of a character well (and there’s even an amusing cameo by fellow Daily Show alum Ed Helms). Of course, NPH brings more funny in this crazed exaggeration of himself.

It’s hardly a perfect film, but it’s funny and significantly different from the usual genre fare, and even when madcap circumstance drops them into President Bush’s home, it doesn’t really go where you expect it to. It’s likely even better if you’re into weed, dude. Dude, weed. Weed, dude.

Baby Mama [watch the trailer]; Tina Fey is an orderly infertile yuppie who wants a child and resorts to hiring a roughneck surrogate mother (Amy Poehler) who moves in with her and causes all sorts of hijinks. Also featuring scene-larceny from Steve Martin as a long-haired eco-guru and Sigourney Weaver as the head of the surrogacy service.

Deception [watch the trailer]: An erotic thriller featuring Ewan McGregor as an also-ran in the New York power elite who’s introduced to The List, an “intimacy without intricacy” service by an enigmatic corporate lawyer (Hugh Jackman), which features Michelle Williams as a mysterious seductress who weaves a deadly web of intrigue and betrayal. It sounds like a Cinemax movie with actual stars.

Then She Found Me [watch the trailer]: In very limited release is Helen Hunt’s directorial debut about a schoolteacher torn between Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth when eccentric Bette Midler shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her biological mother.