Out at the Movies: "Harold and Kumar" and "Baby Mama"

Two studio comedies arrive in theatres today, overpolished and shiny, like wax apples. Both also have throwaway gay characters and are not quite as funny as they would like to be.

Baby Mama
Before I get into this, let me say that I am fully on-board the Fey/Poehler Happytown Express. I have an unlimited ride pass, actually. But even my undying love for these two ladies (and willingness to forgive such atrocities as "Gays in Space" and Envy) wasn't enough to save this one for me. It's cute, sure ... but it's also overlong, achingly predictable, and just not either funny enough or emotionally honest enough to work. While both women have their great moments (improvised, maybe?), the "isn't it funny that these words are coming out of my mouth?" delivery that works for Fey on 30 Rock doesn't translate well to the big screen, and Poehler's character is so wildly uneven (even her accent comes and goes as it pleases) that it feels slapdash.

As far as gay stuff goes, there is a gay couple enrolled in the same surrogate program (run by a wonderfully loathsome Sigourney Weaver) who have a bizarre breakdown related to the fact that one of the men is "manorexic" and thinks that the extremely pregnant woman carrying his child is not merely pregnant, but morbidly obese. Okaaaay... Also, gay go-to character actor Denis O'Hare appears as the ladies' gyno. Overall the movie is cute and you'll chuckle here and there, but it's less than expected from two of the funniest women around, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney (I've been saying "chocolate or poop?!" for weeks) and Steve Martin (yes, he's in it, too).

Harold and Kumar Something Something 
Oh Lordy, where to start ... first off, I actually liked the original movie (a lot), and was hoping for something fun in the sequel despite the fact that I find nearly all political humor to be incredibly obvious and unfunny. I hoped that the return of Neil Patrick Harris signaled that there wouldn't be any unsavory homophobic humor and that the movie would be wacky, outlandish, and fun. In reality, this undercooked "satire" is a colossal disappointment wasting the talents of pretty much everyone involved, from leads John Cho and Kal Penn to underused supporting players like Roger Bart, Rob Corddry, and Missi Pyle.

Maybe H&K thinks it's being "edgy" and making fun of homophobia by including lame gay panic gags (forced oral sex in prison, complete with the attempted rapist calling the heroes "fags") and bandying about words like "queers", "fag", and "c*ckmeat sandwich". And if it were done intelligently and with a modicum of skill (like, say, South Park does), I could buy that. But here it's mean-spirited and not very clever, and it will likely make any gay viewer squirm in his seat (on the opposite coast, Michael seemed to have the same reaction that I had). The racist jokes that perforate the rest of the movie are at least making a point about racism, but with the gay jokes the context is missing, and so is the satire. 

Case in point: at the very end of the movie, two gay characters (they show up literally seconds before and stick around for two whole shots) kiss as the punchline to a standard jealousy gag. I'm sure the filmmakers intended this to be a laugh, but the entire audience at the screening I attended actually booed the gay kiss. (and this is New York City!) Why would this be? Maybe because the film sets up any mention of gayness as something to be viewed with scorn? Come on, guys. Let's be a little more careful.

The two high points are Neil Patrick Harris (not just because he's gay, seriously, but because he has legitimate comedic skill ... and a unicorn) and Eric Winter, two gay-friendly actors who don't belong in this crap (likewise Bart ... interestingly, none of these guys is in any of the scenes with the gay jokes, so they likely had no idea they existed). But if you're sensitive to being the butt of a joke and not really up for a handful of close-ups of landscaped vaginas (seriously), you might want to sit this one out.