I like to think of myself as a fairly
intelligent guy. I have a university degree, my problem
solving skills are excellent and my recreational reading includes everything from Anne Rice and Stephen King to
evolutionary biology and quantum physics. I also like to watch and review
movies in my spare time, and I know what “real” critics would
think of the Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels sequel “Dumb and Dumber To”. So I generously gave it 2 stars out of
four.
….but added another (in parentheses)
because I also have to admit that nothing can make me laugh harder
than pure, unadulterated idiot behavior. I didn't think the original
was a good movie but it made me laugh, and hard. Ditto the “Jackass”
franchise (and anything with Johnny Knoxville, to be honest), “Beavis
and Butthead” and Zach Galifinakis. And though this sequel is
anything but a good movie, there are enough laugh-out-loud moments in
it that I know I will be adding it to my home video collection.
It doesn't start out that way. The
initial gag of the film (that for a prank Lloyd has been faking mental
health issues for 20 years, living in a catatonic state in an
institution) has been well played in the marketing, so that nobody
was laughing about it in the theatre seemed no big deal. But the laughs didn't
"stop" there – I don't think I heard anyone laugh for at least
another 10 minutes, despite rapid fire jokes spilling out
all over the screen. But I want to
emphatically state here though that is isn't because the jokes aren't
funny......
I have never been a fan of the Farrelly
Brothers' direction. They have done several movies (the original
“Dumb and Dumber”, “There's Something About Mary”, “Me
Myself and Irene”, “Kingpin”) that had everything to be truly
incredible comedies, but weren't. The brothers seem to know how to
take something very funny and shoot it in a manner most
certain to make the joke fall flat. Remove any punch from the
punchline, set the timing all wrong, they can make almost anything unfunny.
I felt that was exactly what was happening through the first reel of
“Dumb and Dumber To”. The comedy was funny, but it wasn't
playing funny. I was laughing under my breath a lot because I didn't
want anyone to think I was brain damaged, but I was indeed laughing.
After that initial reel, when we get
into the scant meat of the story, the laughs become more outright. Harry
learns that he has an illegitimate child by Freida Feltcher (infamous
from hearsay in the original film), played by a truly frightening
Kathleen Turner. If she had any more collagen injected into her face
they could have slammed it with a frying pan and she wouldn't have
felt a thing. Instead, now she just looks like that plastic surgery
cat lady. Lloyd and Harry set off to find his long lost child, a
daughter who is carrying on the family intellectual legacy.
Along the way they travel with Travis,
a family friend of the adoptive family, played by Rob Riggle. I
understand that Riggle is a bit of a Hollywood legend for his
improvisational comedy, but I have always found him about as funny as
a good hard kick in the groin. He is somewhat more enjoyable in this
film, delivering as good as he gets with Carrey and Daniels. The
adoptive mother is played by Laurie Holden; throughout the movie I
kept thinking “I know her”, and when I saw her name in the
credits I realized it was because she was Andrea in “The Walking
Dead”. Then I thought “Man, you're a nerd,” and moved on.
The machine-gun rapidity of the jokes
doesn't stop until the last ten minutes when they try to wrap up the
so-called storyline. Not all of them work, and in fact probably
more of them fail than succeed. But those that do work are truly
hysterical, and after one non-stop series of misadventures I was
actually wiping my eyes.
It is anything but a great movie. But
especially for those that laughed at the original, you will again
laugh at the sequel. My official critical stance is that it is a
poor effort, but my “just between us” opinion is that I will
watch it again, and laugh just as hard. And with no apologies
either.
No comments:
Post a Comment