Making a hit comedy movie — let alone a hit comedy franchise — can be a bit of a daunting prospect. It's not too hard to make a film full of cheap laughs that land immediately but don't linger, as evident by the glut of pleasant but forgettable comedy films that exist out there. It's a little harder to make something ambitious and ahead of its time though, especially when the sting of initial failure hurts enough to make the decades-later reappraisal a long wait. The most key form of comedy movie alchemy is making a film which is extremely of its time yet continues to not just retain but gain devoted fans for years afterward, enough so that the gags that are dated don't grate too much, allowing for the more timeless material to shine through.

That pretty much describes "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" to a T. In a lot of ways,...