LOS ANGELES -- Kal Penn and John Cho were working actors for years before they teamed up in 2004 for "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle."
It was that stoner movie that gave their careers a huge buzz.
Since then Penn's gone on to work in the public engagement office at the White House and Cho's starred in the remake of "Star Trek." They've had enough success that they really didn't have to return to the roles for the third installment in the franchise: "A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas."
They agreed on the third movie because of their affection for the characters and a different approach -- this drug-infused adventure is a Christmas movie in 3-D.
The characters have also had time to grow and change.
"This movie is different because this one takes place six years after the first two movies, which was a lot of fun for us to play with. In the first two movies, the characters were 22, 23. Now it's six years later and our core audience has aged as well and so they are 28 or 29 and dealing with drifting away from some of their college friends and settling down and getting married," Penn says. "For us it was an opportunity to age with the characters and have more fun with it in a different way that still pays homage to some great Christmas movies and some of the things we enjoyed the first time around."
Cho's Harold is a successful businessman and husband, while Penn's Kumar is jobless. The pair haven't seen each other in years, but they are brought together by a Christmas disaster. Their night together is loaded with some of the wildest adventures yet, including a drugged-out toddler, a bloody encounter with Santa Claus, a close encounter of the genital kind with a cold metal pole and more male nudity than a Las Vegas bachelorette party.
Penn says the fact it's a Christmas movie opened up all these possibilities.
"In a world where nobody questions whether Santa Claus exists or not, you can get away with infinitely more than we did in the first two movies," Penn says.
Cho adds that even though this film is the wildest ride yet, it is actually the sweetest of all.
"It's a Christmas movie and that brings with it a particular kind of warmth," Cho says. "The perviness of Harold and Kumar has always been innocent in a way. It's like teenage boyish and not creepy."
Cho and Penn are hoping loyal fans of the series will find the film familiar enough to enjoy it, but that it's also different enough to do something the last two movies failed to do -- be a box office hit.
They'd like to see success both in theaters and on DVD so they can keep playing the characters.
"We love each other, and we love the characters. I could literally do 12 of these movies if the audience wanted them over the course of our 150 years on the planet," Penn says.
Cho jokes that at that age the last movie would have to be "Harold & Kumar Battle Glaucoma."
"These characters are growing up and if we do another 14 -- which is a preordained number -- the fun would be to see them remain Harold and Kumar but be in unimaginable situations. It would be funny if they were 60 and still sitting on the couch," Cho says.
TV and movie critic Rick Bentley can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6355. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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