Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the sequel to the modern stoner classic Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, hit theaters last Friday. I sat down with the film's writer/directors -- Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg -- a few days after the release of their film. In the interest of journalistic integrity (and shameless name-dropping), I should tell you that the gentlemen are friends of mine, and all around great dudes.

Cinematical: How did the Hurwitz/Schlossberg magic begin?

Jon Hurwitz: Hayden and I became friends on the Randolph High School debate team and connected over a common love of comedy. We were both obsessed with the movies of the Farrelly Brothers and the Zucker Brothers. We loved Howard Stern. We thought it would be amazing if we could actually make movies one day. But it felt like it was the most unrealistic goal of all time for a couple of dudes hanging out in a basement in New Jersey. What changed everything for us was that in high school we were known for coming up with really funny "Would you rather?" scenarios. We came up with a list of 250 that we were going to try to get published.

Cinematical: What was the best one?

JH: "If you had to be sexually abused, would you rather it be by an android or a Muppet?"

Cinematical: Muppet. It's softer.

Hayden Schlossberg: Exactly. Plain and simple. It would hurt less. That is the correct answer.

(We're re-posting our SXSW review of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

"Is it as good as the first one?" That's the question I've been asked most since watching Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay last night. Short answer: Yes ... and no. The HIGHly-anticipated sequel to 2004's Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle comes just how you'd expect it: raunchy, wild, disgusting and completely absurd. This isn't -- and has never been -- a real-life comedy (all that went out the window after the boys rode a cheetah in the first installment); it's a fantasy/comedy, the kind you'd dream up while stoned out of your mind on a Saturday night. I tend to think that's how writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg came up with this idea in the first place.

The Harold and Kumar films have always been about three things: drugs, sex and racial differences. Like with any sequel, all three of those are upped significantly. Instead of traveling across the state of New Jersey, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are now traveling across the United States. The stakes are also higher; this time, the boys are mistaken for terrorists while on a plane heading for Amsterdam after Kumar rigs up a bong that holds in the smoke -- a bong that looks and sounds like "bomb." After they're taken down to Guantanamo Bay, the first ridiculous homosexual joke plays itself out and the boys manage to escape. But where do they go and how do they clear their name? And, most importantly, will we care ... at all?

Saturday was a very busy day here at SXSW. We were up absurdly late on Friday night, and then awakened at 8AM by a car alarm going off outside our window, followed by all four of my kids' soccer coaches calling me from OKC to let me know that today's games were canceled due to cold weather. Thanks, guys, but I'm in Austin. After the panel this morning, I grabbed lunch with filmmaker AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain: About a Son), who also writes a very excellent blog called All These Wonderful Things.

We gabbed about documentaries, traveling for film fests, balancing work and family, and lots of other stuff; he's a supremely nice guy and it's always fun chatting with someone who's as big a dork for documentary films as I am. Our lunch ran long due to crowds at all the area restaurants, so I missed the screening of We Are Wizards and had to bump it out to a later day in the fest.

Have you recovered from your holiday eating binge? Are you ready for some pie? Reviewing Waitress at Sundance earlier this year, Cinematical's James Rocchi described it as "a light, breezy romantic comedy with a crackerjack cast and a certain degree of faux-Southern charm that never descends to cornpone mawkishness, and also has a whip-smart comedic sensibility in every scene." The late Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed, and co-stars with Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and Andy Griffith. The DVD includes several featurettes and an audio commentary with Russell and producer Michael Roiff.

The Namesake very much impressed our own Kim Voynar, who called it "a deeply felt look at the ties of family and birthplace, the loneliness of living far from your home, and the connections that hold everything together, sometimes in ways we don't appreciate until much later." Mira Nair directed; the film stars Irfan Khan, Tabu, Kal Penn and Sahira Nair. The DVD features an audio commentary by director Nair and several featurettes, plus deleted scenes.

Critics gave high marks (83% positive, per Rotten Tomatoes) to documentary Manufactured Landscapes. It's said to be an "investigation of photographer Edward Burtynsky's legacy, with its aesthetic studies of industrial landscapes. ... It uses the topic of Burtynsky as a springboard." Jennifer Baichwal directed. The DVD includes additional scenes, a stills gallery and a discussion with Baichwal and Burtynsky.

We can never get too many rebellious child prodigy dramas, can we? Vitus fairly well divided critics: 34 positive and 21 negative, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The veteran and versatile Bruno Ganz is the most recognizable name in the cast. The DVD features an interview with Ganz, a "making of" feature and an audio commentary by director Fredi M. Murer.

Austin Film Festival doesn't only show movies, but also includes a screenwriters' conference. This year, the lineup included Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and have written and directed the upcoming sequel, currently known as Harold and Kumar 2. (First they were going to Amsterdam, then they were escaping from Guantanamo Bay. Maybe next they'll be searching for a crystal skull bong.)

Hurwitz and Schlossberg sat down with moderator Josh Weiner and an audience of conference attendees to discuss both the Harold and Kumar movies, and used clips from the first movie to share various lessons they learned in screenwriting.

The first clip shown was the scene in which Harold (John Cho) encounters Maria (Paula Garces) in the elevator, both in his fantasy world and in reality. Hurwitz said the scene was pivotal to the movie because it introduced Maria as a romantic interest, which provided something for the audience to connect with in a movie that otherwise has a fairly slight storyline. In fact, the impact of the scene ultimately caused the ending to be reshot.

The Namesake, director Mira Nair's adaptation of the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a deeply felt look at the ties of family and birthplace, the loneliness of living far from your home, and the connections that hold everything together, sometimes in ways we don't appreciate until much later. Nair examines these issues by focusing her lens on two generations of the Ganguli family: husband Ashoke (Irrfan Khan) and wife Ashima (Tabu), a Bengali couple who immigrated to New York from India, and their children, Gogol and Sonia, who were born and raised in America.

Ashima moves halfway around the world to live with her new husband, Ashoke, following an arranged marriage. Leaving behind the warm, familiar climate of Calcutta, Ashima must adjust to life in New York in winter. Lonely, cold and depressed, Ashima nonetheless does her best to make her way in her new home, as she learns to love her new husband. Before long two children, son Gogol (Kal Penn) and daughter Sonia (Sahira Nair) have expanded their little family and bound them to their new country, and the Gangulis move to a house in the 'burbs in Nyack.

Since Epic Movie was not screened for members of the press, here's what I had to spend in order to bring you this review on opening day: A $19 cab ride, a $7 movie ticket and a $10 day-pass for T-Mobile's wireless internet access at a nearby Border's Book Store, which is where I am currently sitting, drinking a (very strong) vanilla latte and trying to figure out how in the hell a movie this sloppy and stupid could ever earn itself a theatrical release. One can only assume that last year's Date Movie (which was perpetrated by the same duo that unleashed Epic Movie) made just enough money to warrant (yet) another pseudo-movie in which a dozen recent blockbusters are spoofed in amazingly limp and uncreative fashion.

Suffice it to say I really took one for the team today. To be completely fair, I chuckled two or three times during the generally witless Epic Movie, which instantly makes the flick more recommendable than Date Movie -- but if all a movie can give you is a small handful of stray and listless chuckles, well, I don't really think that's a movie worthy of your eight dollars (to say nothing of the $36 I just wasted this afternoon).

Not much is known about Harold and Kumar 2, besides the fact that the boys get in trouble whilst trying to carry a bong on board a flight to Amsterdam. Well, for those interested in learning a bit more about their upcoming adventure, Moviehole has obtained a top secret super special casting call sheet. Oh yes, tell me you're not dying to see who will be starring opposite Kal Penn and John Cho. Well, we don't know their names, but we do know their characters' names and descriptions. And that should be enough to hold you off until a trailer finally leaks out. Keep in mind the following info does contain SPOILERS. You've been warned.

Apparently, Harold and Kumar will be taking a trip down south, as well as to Guantanamo Bay. And, it appears as if they'll be going from Miami to Texas, driving through trailer parks, inner city basketball games and, unfortunately, running into a few KKK members. Yes, they're also looking for someone to play President George W. Bush -- I imagine the boys want to convince him they're not terrorists, just heavy pot smokers. Harold and Kumar's parents are also in the film -- when we first meet Kumar's mom, she's "getting it on" with his dad. (That's a nice visual.) And, while Harold's parents speak flawless English, an interpreter insists on translating every word that comes out of his father's mouth. (That could get irritating, let's hope this joke doesn't overplay itself.) For a full list of character descriptions, head on over to Moviehole. Harold and Kumar Go to Hicksville (that's my title, not theirs) will debut at some point in 2008.

It's an interesting concept that could help bolster a film's overall gross -- except, of course, when that film is called Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj. Over the past month or so, Kal Penn teamed up with musical talents (Art Alexaskis of Everclear and Jonny Dubrowsku of Johnny Lives!) found on the The Rise of Taj soundtrack and toured college campuses, as well as radio and television stations, in an attempt to drum up interest in the new pic. While they should be commended for putting so much effort into what amounts to be a film that slipped past the direct-to-DVD cracks and actually managed a theatrical release, this tour did not help the flick's box office numbers in its opening weekend; it finished in tenth place with a measly $2.3 million. Hmm, I wonder if their bong-smoking target audience forgot all about it?

However, this college campus promotional tour gave folks the swell idea to create a concert tour featuring bands on the soundtrack, and it will be called -- drum roll please -- the Van Wilder Rock Tour! Headlining will be Everclear and Jonny Lives!, with the 12-date tour beginning at some point in January and lasting through the end of February. While no other acts have signed on yet, other bands featured on the pic's soundtrack include Buckcherry, Alternate Routes and Hanson. (Man, those three blonde boys are still making music?) Although it wasn't said, I take it the tour will coincide with the film's DVD release, perhaps going so far as to give people coupons for the DVD or bribe them to buy it. Oh, and they'll have to work in clips from the movie at some point during the show -- perhaps the audience will be bombarded with Kal Penn shtick in between sets.

What do you think -- is this something you'd like to see more of? If so, would a concert with members of a film's soundtrack persuade you to see the actual film, or not so much?

Usually with a sequel the big question is: Will it live up to the original? Then there are sequels that probably shouldn't have been made in the first place -- like, for instance, the sequel to National Lampoon's Van Wilder. They had to make the sequel though, because, you know, there were just so many unanswered questions from the first film.

ComingSoon.net has the first look at the one sheet for the sequel, titled Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj. The film picks up where we left off with Taj, (Kal Penn) the sidekick to Ryan Reynolds smarmy party-boy Van Wilder -- who is, sadly, not returning for the sequel. The film follows Taj to Cambridge as he brings the "wisdom" of Van Wilder to what I'm pretty sure will be your usual array of stock uptight Brits. Penn seems to be on a role with sequels lately since he has also just officially signed to star in Harold and Kumar 2.

We can all recognize a cash grab when we see one, so you don't have to wonder why a sequel gets made to a movie that was at best, a guilty pleasure. Most unneeded sequels end up in the "straight to DVD" category -- we're talking about you, Butterfly Effect 2 -- but this one actually has a release date of December 1 (Quick! Go mark it on your calendar!)

I'm sure we all can think of a few totally unnecessary sequels that somehow got the greenlight. What are some of the worst sequels you can think of? And just how bad do you think the Van Wilder sequel will turn out to be?