Harold and Kumar Slacks Off

Perma-stoned pair set to return for another installment in hit series

(NEWSER) - They've gone to White Castle, escaped from Guantanamo Bay, and they're still smoking. Harold and Kumar will be returning for a third movie, with John Cho and Kal Penn expected to again play the stoned pair, reports Variety. The writing team behind the first two hits will be back, but they haven't let any storyline hints filter out. More»

Films set new standard for concepts of culture

(NEWSER) - Race underscores the stoner misadventures of Harold and Kumar—whose second film comes out tomorrow—but it’s not the point. The movies, about two friends who “just happen not to be white,” set a multicultural standard that Hollywood hasn’t figured out, writes Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times. When it comes to cultural issues, “filmgoers are a bit savvier than they are given credit for,” says a co-director. More»

Critics describe high-school comedy as aimless, 'listless'

(NEWSER) - Combine the talents of the creative team behind Superbad and Knocked Up with the considerable charms of actor Owen Wilson and what have you got? The "dispiritingly mediocre tweener comedy" Drillbit Taylor, writes Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle. He's far from alone in his assessment of the movie, about three dorky freshmen who hire a homeless Army deserter (Wilson) to protect them from a bully. More»

Jack Black comedy too experimental for its own good, critics say

(NEWSER) - The Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind isn't predictable, but at times it's not coherent either, critics say. The film—about a guy who inadvertently erases a video store's VHS inventory, then, using a camcorder, re-creates popular movies for the store to rent—"never stops experimenting, even when the experimentation works against the movie's best interests," writes James Berardinelli of ReelViews.com. More»

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones return for alien flick

(NEWSER) - Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones.

• The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times . While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory."