"You don't need to trust your government; you just need to love your country."

This sage advice offered by a stoned George Bush (James Adomian) to the rumpled Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) is the not so subtle message touted throughout the second, and hopefully final escapade of Harold and Kumar.

The movie picks up just where the last one left off. Literally. Kumar is on the toilet expunging remnants of his White Castle feast. Opening credits watch the two hurriedly packing for a week long vacation in Amsterdam where they are determined to find Harold's new crush.

Issues first arise at the airport where Kumar, who's stuffed weed in his crotch, manages to out-maneuver security with threats to call the ACLU and report racial profiling. Kumar's (clearly unnecessary) smokeless bong is discovered during the course of the flight and some semantic confusion between "bomb" and "bong," along with a zealous national security agent's conspiracy theory about North Korea and Al Queda working together lands the titular heroes in Guantanamo Bay.

Harold and Kumar narrowly escape performing coerced fellatio on prison guard "Big Bob" when "real" terrorists cause commotion in the supposed high security prison. The two hop an electricity fence and board a Cuban run skiff headed for Miami. Within hours they're attending a college classmate's "bottomless party." Their classmate lends the fugitives pink gabardine suits and a yellow sports car, whereupon they begin a quest through the American south toward Texas in search of a young republican acquaintance believed to have guanxi with the Bush Administration.

A lot of stuff goes awry. Harold and Kumar do some racial profiling of their own when they flee an outdoor basketball game on account of some threatening-looking African-American players, who just so happen to be orthodontists. At another juncture, the two are surprised by the hospitality and well grooming of a down-south couple, only to have their assumptions wrenched asunder when they discover the couple's inbred, cyclops child. The duo teams up with the substance-loving Neil Patrick Harris once again, whose free-wheeling life is cut short after bizarre incident at a whore house.

Thematically, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo is a dead leaf echo of the nuanced stoner delight that was White Castle. The first movie spent an evening with some oddball potheads on the ultimate quest for a burger, whose journey cleverly challenged one or two social stereotypes almost as a side-note. Escape from Guantanamo uses this new-age odd couple to bang you over the head with obvious shots at the current administration and the American political correctness quagmire.

Escape from Guantanamo is a terrible movie even if you are a total reefer head. But terrible movies can't make funny people unfunny. Cho and Penn are adroit comedians with on screen chemistry, and if you're willing to put up with a little immaturity you can squeeze some laughs from these two hours.

Grade: C+