A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

For Harold and Kumar fans, this is a welcome third installment, written by the same duo as the first two movies, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. TV director Todd Strauss-Schulson (new to the franchise) didn’t have to use 3D, but puts it to good use with self-conscious cheekiness: smoke rings swirl in the air and eggs splatter, yolk flying. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn), BFFs since forever, have parted ways since the Guantanamo Bay incident (2008’s movie), but are reunited for a string of mishaps involving Harold’s in-laws, a Christmas tree and, of course, Santa. Neil Patrick Harris returns for another cameo as the prancing lead of a Christmas pageant. Though I could do without the drug-addicted baby, and some of the jokes are, unfortunately, borderline racist, it does pretty well for its lowbrow genre, including a surreal Claymation scene for good measure. - Molly Segal