rated R

Once you’ve gotten high and gone on a mind-bending odyssey to White Castle, the only place left to go for some extreme strangeness is Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military prison camp that’s physically in Cuba but exists in a legal no-man’s-land, where the rules of the real world don’t apply. Throwing two high-strung stoners into the mix sounds like a recipe for some off-the-wall comedy, but “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” never really gets as weird as it should. There’s some pointed jabs at the war on terror and snipes at racial stereotypes amid all the dick and fart jokes, but the movie never gets as subversive as you might expect.

Hours after their fateful trip to White Castle, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are onboard a plane bound for Amsterdam, where Kumar plans to enjoy all the legal weed he can handle and Harold plans to woo his dream girl, Maria (Paula Garces). When a paranoid old lady on the plane, already suspicious of Kumar because of his dark skin, spots him lighting up a homemade smokeless bong, she cries terrorism, and it’s not long before the hapless duo is locked up in Gitmo.

They quickly bust out, though, and begin a long trek that takes them from Cuba to Texas, where a friend with government connections—who just happens to be marrying Kumar’s ex-girlfriend—holds the solution to their problem.

“Escape” is just as preoccupied with exposing ridiculous stereotypes as it is with getting the heroes high. Pursuing Harold and Kumar is Homeland Security agent Ron Fox (“Daily Show” alum Rob Corddry), an unrepentantly racist g-man who’s not above using a can of grape soda in his interrogation of an African American witness. Corddry’s scenes would be painfully unfunny if it weren’t for the reactions his antics elicit, which are more like sighs of resignation than righteous outrage. Meanwhile, Harold and Kumar get their own lesson in tolerance when they meet up with a hunter in Alabama. He’s not just a dumb redneck—his cabin is decked out in the latest from Ikea and he’s got DSL—although he is married to his sister and they have an inbred Cyclops child in the basement.

For all the antics, there aren’t many laugh-out-loud moments in “Escape,” and it’s unlikely that adding some mind-altering chemicals into the equation would enhance the viewing experience. The movie is at its best during its most surreal, go-for-broke moments, but those are few and far between. When Neil Patrick Harris, playing a parody of himself, downs a baggie full of mushrooms and sees a vision of himself riding a unicorn into a rainbow vortex, it’s hilarious. But that scene is quickly followed by a sequence in a whorehouse that’s straight out of a 1980s teen comedy, and as the movie becomes more conventional, it also gets more boring.

“Escape” is still enjoyable to watch, but that has more to do with the comedic chemistry between Cho and Penn than the script by writers/directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The actors make believable friends, and “Escape” does a better job of celebrating that relationship than it does of exploding stereotypes. But not even Harold and Kumar can contend with the bizarre charisma of Neil Patrick Harris, who completely bogarts whatever scene he’s in. Drugged out, dangerous and weird, Harris gives his scenes the funny edge that the movie should have throughout. For the most part, “Escape” plays it safe, skirting around surrealism and embracing conventionality. It’ll give you a few giggles, but it’s nowhere near potent enough.