Two twenty-something stoner roommates -- one a Korean American investment banker; the other an Indian American medical school candidate -- go through a life changing journey, as they spend a night roaming the state of New Jersey in search of White Castle hamburgers. [TRAILERS]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

If told as a story by a guest at a party, “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” would undoubtedly end with the phrase: “I guess you had to be there.” It has the components and players necessary for a successful, immature comedy, but lacks something in its telling that leave its punch lines falling short and its laughter spotty at best.

Your enjoyment of the film likely depends on what kind of party guest you envision in the above situation. If your Saturday nights in college consisted of art appreciation and coffee shops, then this warped tale of two losers who embark on a one-night mission to find marijuana and cheap burgers (a.k.a. “sliders”) might not tickle your funny bone.

But for those who remember evenings (or weekends) involving alcohol and desperate, 3 a.m. searches for open fast food establishments, the film’s enthusiasm and commitment to this burger mission might just be enough to earn some laughs.

As one might expect, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar’s (Kal Penn) road trip is not as simple as the title indicates. On their way to get food, they stumble upon an Ivy League pot party, their car is stolen, they go to jail for overreacting to a jaywalking citation and even hang-glide their way to the front doors of their burger heaven.

And while criticizing a movie of this title and this material for being unbelievable is about as obvious as noting its overblown product placement, I was shocked at just how far-fetched this story became in trying to maintain its momentum. For lengthy sequences, as Kumar tries to break Harold out of a county jail, or as the pair must perform surgery on a patient while posing as doctors in hopes of finding medicinal marijuana, a somewhat-humorous idea is beaten to death by sequences that run, at times, twice as long as they otherwise should.

It’s clear what director Danny Leiner (“Dude, Where’s My Car?”) and first-time screenwriters Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg want “White Castle” to be: A wild road trip of the film, which plays off the hilarious immaturity of young professionals who still long to be a pair of crazy college kids.

While Penn and Cho deliver pitch-perfect performances – Penn so earnest and passionate about his desire for burgers and smokes that he conjures images of a fixated John Belushi or Will Ferrell – the convoluted, idiotic and rambling plot finally escapes their grasp and evaporates into the ether of indifference.

Sure, it’s funny to think of two, dumb guys racing through the night in search of horrible fast food. Many of us have been there at one point in our lives, wondering just why we needed the Krispy Kremes, Taco Bell or sliders so badly. But in “ White Castle,” while we see that immature fire in Harold and Kumar’s eyes, we can’t escape the fact that it is being told with the wrong context.

I would have preferred a film that not only made fun of its subject matter, but also mocked the buffoons behind the wheel. Just imagine the effect of a narrator not only reflecting on a silly, stupid story, but then also criticizing these stupid people at this stupid point in their lives.

In doing this, “ White Castle” could have risen above the baked mindset of Harold or Kumar and become instead a social satire more about college and youth than just sliders and weed.

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