MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2012

10- HOPE SPRINGS
Directed by David Frankel
Most provocative of the year

9- THE GREY
Directed by Joe Carnahan
Most intense of the year

8- UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
Directed by Joe Berlinger
Best music of the year

7- JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
Directed by David Gelb
Favorite documentary of the year

6- DREDD 3D
Directed by Pete Travis
Best 3D of the year

5- TED
Directed by Seth MacFarlane
Funniest of the year

4- DJANGO UNCHAINED
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Most badass of the year

3- HOLY MOTORS
Directed by Leos Carax
Boldest filmmaking of the year

2- CLOUD ATLAS
Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Most ambitious of the year (or maybe ever)

1- THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
Most heart of the year

HONORABLE MENTION
CABIN IN THE WOODS
MOONRISE KINGDOM
21 JUMP STREET
GOON
LOOPER
THE RAID:REDEMPTION
THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES

Headed to NYC to shoot this very weird and cool pilot for The Onion and Amazon Studios

“The film’s director, Todd Strauss-Schulson, takes aggressive advantage of the 3-D format, sending all sorts of things shooting out at the audience: syrup, snow, streamers, a hat and lots of wacky-weed smoke…”

“If the sight of a baby covered in powdered cocaine offends you, you are an idiot for having gone to a Harold and Kumar movie.”

-NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS PICK

“God forbid that a critic actually watch a mass-entertainment comedy and love it to death! This week, I saw A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, and I thought it was outrageously hilarious and, in its neo-’80s stoner-surreal way, a deeply clever and inspired movie. Maybe the best of the Harold & Kumar escapades. And so I said so. And to honestly reflect my enthusiasm, I gave the movie the grade that I thought it deserved: a straight A. No qualifications. No pesky niggling minus. An all-out rave.”

“. . . This third H&K movie may be the wittiest, and liveliest, one yet. . .This one, directed by series newcomer Todd Strauss-Schulson, fuses misanthropy and sentimentality in hilariously off-kilter ways.”

-ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY/OWEN GLIEBERMAN

“Strauss-Schulson, directing his first feature, is never shy about going for the requisite excess — of either the franchise or the 3-D format — and the two aesthetics blend perfectly in one sequence that has plumes of cocaine falling like snow as Bing Crosby serenely croons “White Christmas. Strauss-Schulson doesn’t want the extra dimension to fade into the background as an afterthought; just as with the shameless showmen of 3-D’s original 1950s heyday, his vision of the medium is unabashedly in your face.”

-NPR

“There are some inspired moments: When Kumar speculates that Harold’s father-in-law will be so happy upon seeing their new replacement tree that he will “jizz on it,” we see a brief Guy Ritchiean slo-mo shot of Danny Trejo furiously ejaculating onto a Christmas tree. And the idea of state-of-the-art 3-D technology being used to fully immerse the audience in pot smoke works beautifully. . .Don’t laugh if I predict A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas turns out to be both one of the most earnest and subversive studio releases of the season.”

-NEW YORK MAGAZINE/VULTURE

“While I continue to object to 3D as a waste of time and money, I have to give it up to these filmmakers, who poke fun at the 3D itself, only to turn around and use it with more imagination and wit than any other film so far.”

-HUFFINGTON POST

“Harold & Kumar” creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have once again written the screenplay but have handed the director’s chair over to newcomer Todd Strauss-Schulson, and it’s absolutely the right choice. . . I shouldn’t tell you too much more about the giddy excess of “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas” — and for once, you really should pay the extra few bucks for those glasses — but it’s pretty much one ridiculous set-piece after another, and you absolutely don’t need to be wasted to enjoy them. (I’m not saying that wouldn’t be awesome.)”

-SALON

“A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas does to the conventional Christmas movie what Hitler and Stalin did to Poland, except that this time it’s a good thing. And it’s about time.”

“Harold and Kumar’s third outing is a magnificent psychedelic pop-up card of a Christmas movie – glitter and tinsel everywhere, party streamers, candy canes and all the paraphernalia of the consumer-driven lunacy and tempestuous familial strife that is the holidays – and blessed with the wittiest and crudest 3D effects in ages.”

-THE GUARDIAN

From its title, you might assume this third film in the Harold & Kumar series is an idiotic paean to the festive season at its vapid, commercialised worst. But that would be to underestimate it: it’s also highly offensive and baroquely revolting.

The chaos that ensues is howlingly funny but also strikingly creative… they’re delivered with a genial grin and lack the sour undercurrent that has blighted gross-out of late. Even the 3D’s funny: the effect is used largely ironically and in the most banal contexts imaginable. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas’s slacker posturing belies a rare comedic rigour. It takes brains to be this thick.

-THE TELEGRAPH

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2011
(minus A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas)

10- BUNRAKU
Directed by Guy Moshe
Most ambitious visuals of the year

9- BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK
Directed by Richard Press
Most heart of the year

8- THE ARTIST
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
Most clever of the year

7- WARRIOR
Directed by Gavin O’Connor
Most badass of the year

6- CONTAGION
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Scariest movie of the year

5- CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE
Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Most fun I had at a theater all year

4- MELANCHOLIA
Directed by Lars von Trier
Most beautiful of the year

3- SHAME
Directed by Steve McQueen
Boldest filmmaking of the year

2- SUBMARINE
Directed by Richard Ayoade
Funniest movie of the year

1- MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Directed by Woody Allen
Movie that I wish I had made most of the year

HONORABLE MENTION
RUBBER
LIMITLESS
BRIDESMAIDS
DRIVE
ATTACK THE BLOCK
13 ASSASSINS
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
WIN WIN
I SAW THE DEVIL
ANOTHER EARTH
BREAKING BAD SEASON 4 (I debated making this my favorite movie of the year as it was better than almost every other thing I did/saw this year)

The first trailer for A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas just got released. Very exciting day! Check it out HERE

I’m headed to beautiful temperate ORLANDO for 6 week starting in August to shoot three episodes of MTV’s new show “Inbetweeners.” Very excited for the job, less excited for the mosquito’s.

This is crazy. First article about Harold and Kumar in Entertainment Weekly. A magazine I read every issue of as a kid. Check it out HERE