It comes as no surprise that Dumb and Dumber To was the
number one movie at the box office during its opening weekend. Fans have been clamoring to see more of Lloyd
Christmas and Harry Dunne’s antics for years and they proved their devotion as
the film took in over $36 million during its first three days. I re-watched the original recently, as my 10
year-old son, after being bombarded by commercials, was insistent on seeing it,
saying, “I won’t know what’s going on in the new one if I haven’t seen the
first!” I chose not to argue this point
and as we watched the 1994 original, I was surprised that, for a movie of this sort,
it held up quite well.
I can predict with some confidence that the same won’t be
said for Dumber Too, as it is a surprisingly dull affair that never manages
to find its footing, limping along in fits and starts from one uninspired gag
to the next. To be sure there are some laughs along the way (the result of a
cat being tossed into a room full of exotic birds is a keeper) but they’re far
from consistent resulting in far too much down time.
Like the first film, a road trip is the clothesline upon
which sibling directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly hang their series of jokes on
and if there is an improvement on the original, its that there’s a more logical
reason for the boy’s cross-country trek.
Seems Harry (Jeff Daniels) is in need of a kidney transplant and is
desperately seeking a donor after he realizes that he was actually adopted by
his Korean parents (think about it).
However, he finds out that he has a daughter named Rachel (Rachel
Melvin) he never knew about that was given up for adoption. Lloyd (Jin Carrey)
willingly sets out to help him find this young lady once he sees a picture of
her and immediately falls in love.
The result is a series of awkward encounters with fellow
travelers as well as a hitman (Rob Riggle) that Penny’s adoptive mother has
hired to knock off her daughter so that she might inherit her husband’s
riches. Along the way Harry and Lloyd play
one practical joke after another on each other, are involved in one very clever
sight gag straight out of the silent era involving a train that comes out of
nowhere and pepper us with lame malapropisms again and again.
One of the most surprising changes this time out involves
Lloyd’s character who comes off as something as a bully in his treatment of
Harry. On more than one occasion he’s
quite cruel to his friend while his reasons for accompanying him are less than
altruistic. This leaves a bad taste that
no amount of funny moments – of which there are not enough – will erase. There’s also the problem of age. While Carrey and Daniels could not be accused
of phoning it in here, seeing middle-age men trying to pull off the childish
antics on display here is more desperate than humorous. I’m sure both performers were laughing all
the way to the bank after this feature, but in the end Dumber 2 proves again
that some sequels are better left unmade.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2014.
