Dumb & Dumber To (FILM REVIEW)
Dumb and Dumber To
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Carrey and Jeff Daniels Reunite for Another Round of Hijinks
as Dimwitted BFFs
It took the
Farrelly Brothers, Peter and Bobby, two decades to bring back co-stars Jim
Carrey and Jeff Daniels for a follow-up to Dumb and Dumber, their hit comedy that
netted nearly a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office in 1994. Far be
it from this critic to suggest that the long-anticipated sequel was worth the
wait, though I suspect it won’t disappoint fans nostalgic for more of the same from
the bottom-feeding franchise.
Dumb and
Dumber To again coalesces around the terminally-inane antics of Lloyd Christmas
(Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels), gullible dimwits with a penchant for both playing
and being the butt of practical jokes. As the film unfolds, we learn that, for
the last 20 years, Lloyd has been committed to Baldy View Mental Hospital, where he’s undergone
shock treatments and a partial lobotomy.
Faithful Harry, meanwhile,
has been a daily visitor, regularly changing the bag of urine waste attached to
his pal’s private parts. Today, however, the wheelchair-bound patient giggles
“Gotcha!” to reveal that his protracted stay in the asylum has all been a gag
staged purely for his buddy’s benefit. After admiring the elaborate ruse, Harry
rips the catheter out of Lloyd’s penis roughly, with the help of a couple of
obliging groundskeepers. Ouch!
The reunited
roommates immediately make their way home to their apartment where they proceed
to pull a mean-spirited prank on their apprehensive, blind next-door neighbor
(Brady Bluhm) by feeding Pop Rocks to his pet birds. (Don’t try that at home,
kids!) Harry subsequently exposes the
anus of their cat to explain why he refers to it as Butthole, another joke that
merely falls flat. Equally unfunny is the introduction of a drug dealer (Bill
Murray), whose crystal meth Harry mistakes for candy.
Such lowbrow fare serves
as prologue and proves to be par for the course for the peripatetic adventure
about to ensue. Yes, the farfetched road trip does revolve around the rudiments
of a plot, though that’s ostensibly of less concern to the filmmakers than seizing
on the flimsiest of excuses to gross out their audience at every opportunity.
To summarize the
story in 25 words or less, Harry has his own medical issue and is in urgent
need of a kidney donor. Fortunately, he has a long-lost daughter he’s never met
(Rachel Melvin) who just might be a genetic match.
With that, our brain-damaged
protagonists are off on a cross-country trek in search of Penny that provides
this kitchen sink shocksploit ample opportunities to slap disgusting displays
of depravity and vulgarity onscreen.
Fair (1 star)
Rated PG-13
for crude humor, profanity, sexuality, partial nudity and drug references
Running time: 109 minutes
Distributor: Universal
Pictures
To see a trailer for
Dumb and Dumber To, visit:
No comments:
Post a Comment