Director: Troy Miller
Stars: Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson, Shia LeBeouf
Before Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne were older and stupid, they were also younger and stupid.
It’s not so much that DUMB AND DUMBERER is bad—it’s plenty terrible—it’s that it’s completely, utterly pointless. Needless cash-grab or not, it wouldn’t be impossible to make at least a decently funny movie out of this. There are plenty of directions you could take, characters you could visit, and dumbness to explore. Unfortunately, writer/director Troy Miller (a veteran of pretty much every comedy television show from the last 20 years) has no clue what to do with any of that so he just essentially remakes the original film without the laughs, charm and rapist wit.
TRANSFORMERS. INDIANA JONES 4. WALL STREET 2. It’s all making sense now…
The sad part is the actors they got to play Lloyd and Harry are spot on. Eric Christian Olsen (who you might recognize sans bowl cut from stuff like BEERFEST and NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) in particular completely nails Jim Carrey’s take on Lloyd Christmas. He’s got the look, the voice, the physicality—just not the script to make it worth the effort. The rest of the supporting cast includes such heavy hitters as Eugene Levy and Cheri Oteri as the scheming principal and his bimbo girlfriend; Rachel Nichols as the female lead who uses our heroes for her personal gain; and a young Shia LeBeouf as a centaur. (Sort of.) Also, here is something completely unexpected: the funniest part of this movie is BOB SAGET. No joke, some of the few actual laughs I got from this flick came from his cameo as Rachel Nichols’ dad, whose entire role consists of him reacting negatively to Harry’s alleged bathroom habits. (“There is sh*t…everywhere!”)
After years of pastry-related incidents, it took a lot to shock Jim’s Dad.
It feels weird critiquing a movie with this title for being stupid, but it leaves me no choice. This material is so lazily braindead it actually does the moniker “DUMB AND DUMBERER” disservice. There’s not really any plot; there’s stuff that happens outside of the main characters, but they’re completely passive and pointless to their own movie. The small pittance of a story revolves around the principal trying to launder money by starting a fake special needs program at the school. This happens, then continues to happen, then is still happening, until at the end by complete happenstance someone stumbles upon a tape he recorded for himself admitting to his crimes for no reason. They literally got to that part in the script and said, “Hmmm, how should the villain’s master plan be revealed? I don’t know. It just does.”
Shia sees his future taint in NYMPHOMANIAC.
This might be overlooked if the movie were funny in any way, but Danny Tanner aside, it’s almost completely devoid of humor and originality. It feels like there are setups to potential jokes, but bizarrely nothing is ever paid off. Lloyd has a crush on Harry’s mom (played by a MILFy Mimi Rogers) and wants to be his dad, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Luis Guzman was cast as Lloyd’s well-meaning father figure and you would assume he would be given something funny to say/do, but he disappears after the first act. Same for Shia LeBeouf, who plays one of the film’s oddest character (a virginal teen dressing up as different mascots), but he’s just there without a punchline. There are also random tangents about brain-freezing slushies and an imaginary pirate that offer nothing.
Blue Steel: The Early Years.
The prequel part of DUMB AND DUMBERER only lasts in the beginning, but it admirably tries to answer all your dire questions about the friendship between Lloyd and Harry from the first movie. Pressing issues like:
It’s nice to see the girl from TOTAL RECALL not getting typecast.
Once all that’s out of the way the film is free to essentially just carbon copy its predecessor, from countless lines and phrases to straight up plot points. See if any of this sounds familiar:
Even at a scant 84 minutes, it feels like DUMB AND DUMBERER drags on and on, mainly because you know exactly what’s going to happen if you’ve seen the first movie. Also due to the murder of laughter.
I would rather watch the DUMB AND DUMBER cartoon, featuring Lloyd, Harry and their pet beaver Kitty.
“Who’s Benjamin Franklin again?” “He’s a pilgrim who used penicillin to kill Godzilla.” And other winners.
Danny Tanner faces his worst fecal nightmare. BONUS: Make out party!
For some reason, a girl with three boobs.
Desperately want to make love to a schoolboy? Buy this movie here!
Take a shot or drink every time:
Double shot if:
Haven’t had enough deconstruction of DUMB AND DUMBERER? No problem! We’ve got the video version below to take you to even deeper levels of idiocy with this film. You’ll like it a lot:
Seen a movie that should be featured on this column? Shoot Jason an email or follow him on Twitter and give him an excuse to drink.