Review of Dumb and Dumber To (2014) by Patrick L — 01 Apr 2015

"20 years after the original "Dumb and Dumber", do you really want to see Harry and Lloyd again?".

Movie Review: Dumb and Dumber To.

Date Viewed: November 14 2014.

Directed By Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly.

(Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Kingpin, The Three Stooges and Hall Pass).

Screenplay By Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly,.

Sean Anders, John Morris, Bennett Yellin and Mike Cerrone, Based on characters created by Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin.

Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Kathleen Turner, Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Brady Bluhm, Steve Tom, Rachel Melvin and Paul Blackthorne.

Here it is folks, the most anticipated sequel of 2014 has arrived! It is.... "Dumb and Dumber To"? 20 years after Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas (played by Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey) set off on a cross-country road trip to Aspen, Colorado, they are (you guessed it) even dumber than ever. Even though they're now in their 50's, Carrey and Daniels still want to play these two dimwits again. I have to admit that "Dumb and Dumber To" did make me laugh but once again, Harry and Lloyd go on another road trip and they have to deal with a bunch of criminals.

The first "Dumb and Dumber" was one of the three 1994 movies that launched Jim Carrey onto the Hollywood spotlight. It was a big year for him, he starred in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", "The Mask" and "Dumb and Dumber". Carrey and of course Jeff Daniels would go on to do great work since "Dumb and Dumber" became a comedy classic. Daniels has had a lot of work in independent movies like "Squid and the Whale", "Good Night, and Good Luck", "The Lookout" and "The Hours" while Carrey has since appeared in thought-provoking movies like "The Truman Show" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Was I a fan of the first "Dumb and Dumber" movie? No I wasn't but Carrey and Daniels did have great chemistry together as Harry and Lloyd and it was in the tradition of "Abbott and Costello" and "The Three Stooges".

Two decades after the 1994 original, Lloyd Christmas is now in a mental hospital while Harry goes to visit him every Wednesday to check up on him and change his diapers. Suddenly, Lloyd shouts to Harry, "GOT YA!". He realizes that Lloyd has thrown away twenty years of his life for a gag and he thinks it's awesome. For the past twenty years, Harry has since got a new cat named Butthole and a new roommate named Icepick (played by Bill Murray, in a small cameo as a guy who makes crystal meth). Harry is in desperate need of a new kidney and he and Lloyd go on another adventure to find a donor.

After a trip seeing Harry's Asian parents, Harry and Lloyd discover a postcard from Harry's old flame, Fraida Felcher (Kathleen Turner) and they decide to track her down. Once they meet her, she tells Harry that she was pregnant with his baby but she gave her up for adoption. Once we arrive at her house, we meet our main antagonists, Adele (Laurie Holden) wants to poison her older husband in order to gain his fortune. It also turns out that Harry's long lost daughter named Penny (Rachel Melvin) is just as dumb as Harry, Lloyd, Kim Kardashian and Kate Upton. Lloyd soon has a crush on Penny which disturbs Harry and we get two twin brothers (both played by Rob Riggle) who are hired by Adele to kill both Harry and Lloyd.

The Farrelly brothers are also back to do the sequel but they have just made a carbon copy of the first film. What's amazing is that the screenplay has six names on it (including the Farrelly brothers and Sean Anders who directed one of the worst movies of all time, "That's My Boy"). Just like Carrey, the Farrelly brothers also rose to the spotlight after "Dumb and Dumber", they did "Kingpin" and "There's Something About Mary" back in their 90's heyday. Kathleen Turner gives a really bad performance as Harry's old flame but she's not as awful as Mama June (from Here Comes Honey Boo Boo) who briefly shows up in a dream sequence. Jennifer Lawrence was supposed to have a cameo as well but she was removed from the picture entirely at her own request.

We get dozens of gross-out gags in this movie, some of them work while most of them fail to hit the bullseye. Fans of the original will probably be pleased with it and it is proudly stupid but did we really need this sequel? Probably not but at least it's better than "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd", the awful prequel from 2003 which didn't star Carrey or Daniels.