Despite the enthusiasm of its returning leads, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, Dumb and Dumber To can’t help but feel like a pale imitation of its first, despite some solid laughs.
Recreating successful comedy is always an uphill battle. Since good comedy is something of a lightning in a bottle, producing something that’s just as uproarious and inspired rarely comes out fruitful. This is even the case when the entire primary cast returns, proven by Ghostbusters II and the Hangover sequels.
Usually the best revitalizing of comedy gold turns out pretty good, but not as good as the original, as two recent examples — 22 Jump Street and the fourth season of Arrested Development — vividly proved. So when word came Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey would be returning to their beloved portrayals of Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber, twenty years after the fact, expectations were hopeful but grounded. There’s no way they could really make this work, right?
Despite the enthusiasm of the two leads, Dumb and Dumber To sadly follows in suit.
It may have been two decades, but not too much as changed in the lives of Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey). After returning home for a mental hospital from a twenty-year prank on his best friend, Lloyd comes home to discover Harry is in desperate need of a new kidney. As his loyal companion, Lloyd will go to any length to make sure his buddy is medically sound — except give one of his own organs, of course.
But upon visiting back their old stopping ground, they may have discovered the answer to their problems after its revealed Harry is the biological father of a long-lost twenty something daughter, now going under her adoption name of Penny (Rachel Melvin). Deciding upon themselves to visit Harry’s kin, reconnect, possibly get one of her kidneys and also have her meet her biological mother, Fraida (Kathleen Turner), they go on another cross-country road trip, with their usual trouble following them along their travels.
There’s no denying Daniels and Carrey are having a blast returning to their terrible haircuts and goofy antics for this new film. There’s a mad twinkle in their eyes in each scene, and their chemistry is almost as infectious as it was the first go-around. Their delight helps elevate the movie through some of its bumpier patches, but ultimately they cannot save co-writers/directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly from unintentionally dragging their beloved characters through the dirt.
To be blunt, the Farrelly brothers just don’t seem to know what makes their characters work. Over the past decade, their career-building mix of amusingly odd characters and earnest sympathy in conjunction with gross out humor has been overshadowed by an incessant need to “shock” their audiences for cheap laughs. This is what deflated The Heartbreak Kid, Hall Pass and, on Peter’s end, Movie 43.
Even when they go for more mild-mannered humor, like their Three Stooges reimagining two years ago, they can’t seem to bring their original sense of character and heart back into their productions. Instead, they seem to just go for broke with bombastic gags and over-the-top set pieces that can’t help but feel limp and stale.
While Dumb and Dumber To is easily their most watchable film since Stuck on You or maybe Fever Pitch, this ongoing misunderstanding of success carries on in their attempts at regaining their 1994 glory. What made the original film so successful was how the filmmakers could play on the main characters’ ignorance, especially against the reactions of their unassuming bystanders. They weren’t ill intentioned, but rather just trying to make due with the right ideas with the wrong actions/reactions.
With this sequel, however, they’re just straight up mean-spirited people. They are loud, inconsiderate, childish and, above all, kind of annoying. It’s hard to believe that anyone would actually act like this, especially at 40-50, let alone have people think their actions are justifiable or believable. There is the division often separating the film from earning laughs.
The original, while most definitely a farce, didn’t have the leads acting completely out of the world of logic. They did crazy things, yes, but there was some line of understanding to their thinking. One could say there was a method to their madness. Here, though, they are almost cartoon characters.
Still, for all its ill-conceived thinking, there are some good laughs here. While many are spoiled in the trailers, solid set ups pop up occasionally, as well as some punchy one-liners which work more than they have any right to. The plot set up for the film, while way too indebt to the original, has some solid ideas.
There’s an ongoing sense throughout Dumb and Dumber To may just be a couple rewrites away from being at least pretty good. Though, considering that there are a whopping six people listed credited as writers — in addition to the Farrellys, Sean Anders, Mike Cerrone, John Morris and Bennett Yellin also have their names on the screenplay — one must wonder the state of the original drafts. Perhaps there were just too many cooks messing with the stew to make this sequel shine.
The best category for Dumb and Dumber To to fall under is “could have been better, could have been worse.” In the corners and wedges of this sequel is a funny movie, but it’s constantly overshadowed by poor character conceptions, an overstretched running time and a lack of creative restraint. Daniels and Carrey are still as engaged to their characters as can be; even if they look a little more warn down this time around. But there’s still an unshakable sense that this is just a poor recreation of the first film, and one that is fairly insipid, at that.
