Review: Dumb and Dumber To

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: Older but not wiser, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) hit the road in search of Harry’s long-lost daughter Penny (Rachel Melvin), who they hope will be able to give him a kidney in order to save his life. Along the way, they stumble onto a villainous plot by Penny's step-mother (Laurie Holden) to eliminate her adopted father and steal a scientific secret worth billions.

REVIEW: There's something kind of sad about watching Jim Carrey (52) and Jeff Daniels (59) mug around the screen as middle-aged men acting the same way they did twenty years ago. What was once hilarious becomes borderline painful in a sequel that's at least a decade and a half too late. This is one of those movies that only exists to capitalize on the nostalgia factor and goodwill coming from the fact that twenty years later, DUMB AND DUMBER still holds up as a pretty funny flick. While there are half-a-dozen good belly laughs here and there in this sequel, on the whole DUMB AND DUMBER TO (not a typo) makes you wish the Farrelly Brothers had just left well-enough alone.

DUMB AND DUMBER kicked off a great run of comedies for Bobby & Peter Farrelly, with it followed by the underrated KINGPIN, the megahit THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (I'm shocked we never got a THERE'S 'STILL' SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) and ME, MYSELF & IRENE, which arguably stands as Carrey's last truly great straight-comedy performance. The Farrelly Bros' last few movies have been lean on the laughs, and while Carrey's excelled at dramatic parts (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS) his comedies (YES MAN, MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS, etc) have left much to be desired.

The most noteworthy thing about 'TO' is that this is the first time Carrey's gone back to the frantic mugging style that made him a megastar in years, and despite his age he gives it his all, even if the material hardly merits it. This feels like a cash grab that just tries to hit the same comedic beats as the original, only bigger, louder, and much less funny. One dead bird in the first movie becomes twenty dead birds in the sequel. Lloyd’s kung-fu fantasy sequence from the first becomes an even bigger one, etc. Even Rob Riggle's part seems like a total rip-off of the thug played by Mike Starr in the original. Again, much of the plot revolves around Lloyd’s pursuit of love, with the cringe-factor played up to near incestuous levels as she happens to be his best buddy's daughter (and just as dim as her father).

While these jokes mostly fall flat, Carrey does manage to eke out a few good laughs, with the best stuff being the throwaway bits that seem as though Carrey's improvising them. One scene that sticks out is the way Lloyd eats a hot dog (gross) or the way he greets a dog at a gas station. Too bad most of the gags are so uninspired. The gross-out gags fall especially flat, and lack the edge that made the first movie so cool. Carrey and Daniels, who looks especially well preserved, do their best but can only muster a few minor chuckles. Holden's femme fatale bit is played mostly straight, while Kathleen Turner finds herself the butt of a lot of surprisingly mean jokes as Daniels' one-time fling. This film definitely lacks the “rapist wit” of the original, although at least it's better than WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD, which stands as the most ill-advised idea for a movie since SON OF THE MASK. At least the old crew is back together, but much of the magic is gone. Still, Carrey and Daniels at least seem to be having fun once again playing off each other. It would be great to see the two of them together again in something a little sharper where they don't have to pretend it's still 1994.

DUMBER AND DUMBER TO is really only worth seeing if you're a die-hard fan of the first movie and have been dying to see Carrey and Daniels reunite for the last twenty years. If you're looking for nostalgia, just put on some Butthole Surfers or Crash Test Dummies while you try to dig up your old DVD copy of the original. C'mon – I know you have one.

Dumb and Dumber To

NOT GOOD

4

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