Harold and Kumar are basically a Cheech and Chong for a new generation, only not nearly as funny. The film features our lovable loadies barely surviving a night of hell on a simple burger-run to White Castle.

John Cho and Kal Penn are likable enough performers, but sadly, they are unable to walk that fine line between stupid and funny. And they don’t play stoned particularly well I might add. Even by juvenile comedy standards, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is, at best, half-baked - and only manages to stay a hair above the depths of White Chicks and Eurotrip.

Danny Leiner (who made the unforgettable masterpiece Dude Where’s My Car) deserves props for delivering perhaps the most non-P.C. film of the year. Unfortunately he delivers very few laughs, and the execution is beyond clumsy. Harold and Kumar only barely succeeds when Leiner finally lets the proceedings slip into absolute absurdity in the final half hour. At the very least, this is the first movie I’ve ever seen in which a couple of pot-heads ride on the back of a sprinting, stoned cheetah. You would have to guess that the folks at PETA are going to take a dim view of a stoned cheetah.

And for those of you clamoring to see a little T & A, you’ll be happy to know that the movie does deliver, but it’s nothing to leave home about. I really wanted to like this movie. I know the film makers weren’t going for anything deep, but I just didn’t find it funny. I laughed five times during the entire film (I counted), and three of those laughs were aimed directly at a hilariously crazed Neil Patrick Harris. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d witness Doogie Howser, M.D. snorting cocaine off the ass of a naked chick. I have Harold and Kumar to thank for that moment of Zen.

Sadly, the jokes that work are lost in a little corner of seeds and stems, so I can’t really recommend this movie, despite the likable presence of Cho and Penn, and a sublimely slimey Harris. I suggest you snuggle up to a warm fire, break out the bong and rent a Cheech and Chong flick or the underrated Half Baked instead.

Grade: C-