Soundtracks Reviews

Soundtrack Review: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

By Sue Klasky Jul 7, 2008, 15:45 GMT

Pot-smoking duo Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kai Penn) are back in the sequel to "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." They star in "Harold and Kumar: Escape to Guantanamo Bay."

This time they are try to evade police who think they are terrorists when they try to get a bong on an airplane going to Amsterdam.

Composer George S. Clinton has been scoring films since 1983. He composed this instrumental score for "Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay" for an orchestra.

Clinton focuses on lots of bombastic horns, high-pitched strings, harp and drums for his score. I know film composers must have a musical theme that appears through their pieces, but here they sound similar and just flow together. 

The first tune, "Ron Fox/Interrogation/Gitmo" sets the musical theme featuring those loud horns, drums and violins.

The music starts off loud, then gets quiet with a harp, and turns ominous with horns and loud strings. This theme winds its way throughout the score.

In "Dead Bambi/Cell Phone/Doors/Cyrus" the music starts off in a country vein with a banjo, then bam, back to that dark early thread with violins shrieking. "Unicorn Mushroom" features a sitar, adding a Middle Eastern flavor. I didn't really like "kkkp/Escape The KKK" with the high pitched violins.

I liked the beginning of "Branded" with a bluesy harmonica, but, then the loud horns and drums come in again with the musical thread. I liked "Hewitt Texas/Broken Heel/The Airport" with its western feel and cool drums. And "Free Fall" has an earnest, fast-paced, action feel to it. "Kumar's Poem" features a peaceful piano solo.

The musical production is excellent and I liked the various drums. I'm sure the score was appropriate for the scenes in the movie. Yet, it didn't hold my interest since the pieces sounded so similar.