Well i got this movie in a big outside sale of a video club, cost 3$ so why not? After all it got Kal Penn, and yes its my own fault for buying something because i recognize the main star from a movie i like. Kal Penn mostly famous for the Harold & Kumar franchise play here one of the main character in this pre-Harold & Kumar movie. Kinda weird is that the other main character is name Hari Kumar Patel or something like that, which is the name of Kal Penn's character in Harold & Kumar. Anyway, this movie is rated G in Quebec which mean General Public, and therefore it was expected that there would not be raunchy stuff even tough Kal Penn hold panties on the front cover.
Some of the ideas where good, and the movie had a little something that didn't made it "bad" but it definitely need for laughing moments. Its one of those movie where it should be funny, but its not really and the best you can get out of it are a few smiles and maybe a chuckle or two. The main character is socially awkward coming from India and being very traditional and its mostly from him that the smiles come from. Kal Penn do very OK with the material he is offered but there was only one scene that more or less amused me.
This movie like many others enter the "cute comedy" category and i think when i was 10 or 12 i would had a lot of fun watching it, for that period of time, but in today's standard, it felt short.
I will admit the hard accents also made it hard for me to follow everything properly, as English ain't my first language in the first place. And i usually don't mind too much a comic relief side character with accent, having to follow an entire movie like this is kinda difficult. The movie is also full of India's music which where very annoying at time.
I think my biggest grudge against the movie is that with a title like "Dude, Where's the party" (probably cashing in on Dude, Where's my car) i was expecting a wild ride of a night movie, in the vain of "21 and over" only a bit softer. If you prefer take Ferris Bueller's day off as a better example in that rating category.
Anyway like i said, unlike some people if a movie does not amuse me that much but i still finish it and feel like "yah well OK" i will give it a 5 and say its OK, just not as good as i had hope for, but not that bad either. I remember Balls and Chain with the same Kal Penn which was not as good as i had hope for, but a bit better than this if my memory serve me well. In any case, i think outside the Harold and Kumar franchise and Van Wilder movies, there is nothing memorable from Kal Penn in term of comedy. Well Bachelor Party Vegas was nice thinking about it... not awesome but nice.
