Dumb
And Dumber To
Have
you seen all of those commercials for the new Dumb And Dumber To?
Then, you have seen everything you need to see (with the exception of
one very awesome and subtle cameo).
Twenty years after the events of the first one, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and
Harry (Jeff Daniels) are about to go on another misadventure.
Harry’s health is failing and only an unlikely kidney transplant
will save him. However, fate is about to intervene.
It turns out Harry spent a night of passion with Fraida Felcher
(Kathleen Turner) some twenty or so years ago, and she had a daughter,
who was given up for adoption. After realizing the daughter is quite
gorgeous, Lloyd convinces Harry they should set off to find her and
convince the young lady to donate a kidney to the father she never
knew. Lloyd even hopes she will give him her heart.
Writers/directors The Farrelly Brothers had a great and amazing hot
streak when they put out Dumb And Dumber, Kingpin and There’s
Something About Mary, but, lately, it has been all Three Stooges and Movie 43
(count yourselves among the lucky if you never were subjected to Movie
43, they could drop copies of that movie on ISIS and win the war if
it didn’t violate the Geneva Conventions). I guess that’s
why they felt it was more profitable and, potentially, more successful
to go back to the well for Dumb And Dumber To. It was funnier,
but not by enough.
Dumb And Dumber To starts strong, but fades
quickly, like your motivation at work on a Friday or my willpower when
I drive past the bakery. The audience gets plenty of giggles and laughs
at the immature, juvenile humor (especially if the audience is full of
13-year old boys), but Bobby and Peter Farrelly don’t sustain the
comedy. They don’t even get as outrageous as many would want.
Dumb And Dumber To drags and drags as the
audience moves past the first few scenes where we reunite with Lloyd
and Harry. The novelty wears off, and, after that, The Farrellys
don’t have very much to offer.
The pair is trying very hard to revive everything you liked about the
first movie, but Dumb And Dumber To is not as surprising, not
as original, and not as lovable. It goes off the tracks as the search
to find the daughter intersects with a crazy subplot about her adoptive
father and the people in his life. It feels desperately grafted on to
the original story because our writers/directors ran out of material.
Yet, Carrey and Daniels sell the hell out of this. They still make a
great pair. Carrey is perfect as the overconfident, arrogant ignoramus
with the questionable ethics, while Daniels wins over the audience with
his dullard naivety and earnest heart. No matter how ridiculous the
material, these two mostly find some way to make you giggle a bit.
There are many better movies out in theaters right now (St. Vincent, Interstellar, Big Hero 6, Fury,
Nightcrawler),
but you will get some laughs out of Dumb And Dumber To,
especially if you have the sense of humor of an 8th grader (and who
doesn’t?). Plus, good luck figuring out where the cameo is and
who it is.
Dumb
And Dumber To is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, partial
nudity, language and some drug references.
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