John Cho and Kal Penn star in "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay."

I liked the guys better when they were just trying to score some sliders.

When "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" first hit theaters, four years after the debacle that was "Dude, Where’s My Car," people were bracing for just another lazy stoner comedy. But instead, "Harold & Kumar" asserted itself as a smarter, funnier spoof than anyone was expecting.

In its two unconventional leads, John Cho and Kal Penn struck a chemistry that was infectious, and setting aside the film’s final, inane 20 minutes, there was something refreshingly simple and believable about the premise - that two young guys, stoned and bored, would get lost on their way to some late-night eats.

It was a perfect mix of characters and coincidences, and "Harold & Kumar" left audiences wanting more. But sadly, in molding this weekend’s sequel, "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," those at New Line have chosen to play up the slapstick while playing down the dialogue. It’s an approach that makes for far more timely and provocative material - hence the escape from the infamous military prison, and the sequence in which President Bush puffs on a joint - but it also means that what’s missing is the chemistry and the charisma of Cho and Penn, who don’t so much run the show here, as play the part of observers.

Beginning only a few minutes after the final scene of the 2004 film, Guantanamo Bay starts with both the nervous Harold (Cho) and the carefree Kumar (Penn) heading to the airport, eager to board the plane for Amsterdam, where Harold can track down the girl of his dreams and Kumar can smoke up without being hassled.

But on the plane, determined to get high, the duo disables the bathroom smoke detector, and is mistaken by the flight crew as terrorists. Back at the airport, they’re interrogated by a swaggering agent from the Department of Homeland Security (played by Rob Corddry), who decides to send the two to Guantanamo Bay - where they remain for approximately five minutes.

From there, it’s a rather preposterous trip back to the Northeast, hitching a raft ride back to the continental United States, stumbling upon a Ku Klux Klan rally in progress as they make their way through the forests of the South, and even finding their way to a southern brothel where foreplay turns to gunplay. Oh, and then there’s the ironic stop through Crawford, Texas.

The problem is that, without the car and the familiar geography, these two jokesters seem woefully out of their element. As they literally roam across the countryside, the jokes become more obvious and - as a result - less interesting, and all this shtick about breasts, booze and bigotry starts to wear thin quickly.

There’s a special treat for "H&K" fans during the closing credits - something of a travelogue where we go behind the scenes as these actors enjoy an Amsterdam holiday. It was here where I was reminded of what film critic Gene Siskel once said about how to judge a movie: "Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?"

With "Guantanamo," the answer is no. While the first Harold & Kumar felt like a random Saturday night out with the guys, fans will have to wait until the closing credits of the heavy-handed sequel to finally get a dose of that carefree whimsy.