Dumb and Dumber To **½ (2014, Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle) – Movie Review

Dumb and Dumber To brings the retired retards Harry and Lloyd back out of mothballs for a desperate update, with original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and original writer-directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly.

The shameful, appallingly inappropriate humour piles high, daring you to laugh, and the exuberant performances breath life into the dinosaur, as this time machine of a movie takes us back to the bad old days of 1994. Boy, that was a crap year!

This time, Harry needs a new kidney (or so he says) and discovers he fathered a daughter in 1991. The mother (a bewildered-looking Kathleen Turner) tells the duo that the baby was adopted by a genius. Lloyd develops a crush when he sees a picture of the girl, and insists the two track her down, prompting them on a road trip to meet her at an El Paso science conference, where Harry is guest speaker.

The plot’s a virtual re-run of the first one 20 years ago, as either an homage or through a lack of new ideas, depending on your point of view. But, it’s very much for the case of the defence that it never runs out of steam or gags throughout. It totally has the courage and comic bravery of its own convictions. Fans of the original, of which there were very many, will undoubtedly love this and not feel short changed. There’s a huge value here of dirty, gross-out laughs.

Me, I came out struggling for breath and fresh air after not laughing once for an hour and three quarters. But then I didn’t like Dumb and Dumber One either. However I have to admit that, old and tired though they look, Carrey and Daniels still have the dynamic energy and wicked sense of humour to make the awful gags work. And nobody does gross-out better than the Farrelly Brothers, who can really shock you.

Personally I can live without Carrey’s Lloyd sexually molesting an old lady in a retirement home, his colostomy bag being forcibly ripped off his body by Daniels’s Harry or the cat being treated to meth. But that’s just me.

By and large, the Americans loved Harry and Lloyd all over again. Carrey needed a hit and this is it. It took $82million when it opened in the States in November. So it is just me.

Check out the original and the non-Jim Carrey 2003 prequel update.

http://derekwinnert.com/dumb-and-dumber-1994-jim-carrey-jeff-daniels-lauren-holly-classic-movie-review-1963/

http://derekwinnert.com/dumb-and-dumberer-when-harry-met-lloyd-2003-derek-richardson-eric-christian-olsen-eugene-levy-classic-movie-review-1964/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1973

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