Back and stupider then ever, Dumb and Dumber To, if nothing else, was a fun excuse to see Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels back together again.
However dumb the excuse was, it still had me laughing. I went into the theater with low expectations, and came out pleasantly surprised, mind you, they were pretty low expectations. But with that being said, let’s get on with the review!
So a lot about this movie and it’s plot has been made known to the public in the last few months, so the plot was no surprise. It’s been 20 something years since the first film and Jim Carrey’s character, Lloyd, has been pretending to be brain-dead the whole time, only to surprise Harry when Harry says that he’s sick. They soon find out that Harry has a daughter, and they set out to find her so she can give him her kidney, since he needs a new one.
They find out that she was given up for adoption when she was a baby, and was adopted by a family, The Pinchelows. So they embark on a classic road trip, only to find that his daughter had just left her house for a conference in Texas, so they embark on another road trip to find her there, but this time, a family friend of the Pinchelow’s, Travis, (Rob Riggle), comes along with them. As it turns out, Travis and Mrs. Pinchelow are the evil bad guys, and they’re even more ruthless than Mental and J.P. from the first one. So Travis’ goal is to make sure Harry and Lloyd never get to Penny, Harry’s daughter.
So, without going through the whole film, they get into just as many shenanigans as their first time around. It was pretty clear though how much they’ve aged, looking back at the first film makes them look like kids.
Dumb and Dumber To is a funny follow-up to the classic, even if it feels like it’s been a little bit too long for a sequel. It had me laughing pretty consistently through the whole movie, and exceeded my expectations, so I was pretty happy with it. There were plenty of throwbacks and jokes from the first film which made it just nostalgic enough to make everyone want to watch the first one again.
Sometimes it felt like this movie went a bit farther than the first one did, especially with the sexual jokes and repeating the same jokes, it felt like they were trying pretty hard to make it funny, whereas the first one didn’t feel forced. The first one felt like two directors making the movie that they wanted to, and this one felt like the same two directors trying to get the same reaction as the first movie, kind of like Anchorman. What I’m trying to figure out though is why Anchorman 2 was rated so much higher, even higher than the first Anchorman. I have a hunch that Anchorman has a little bit wider of an appeal. I think Anchorman is more like SNL funny, which more people like, and Dumb and Dumber is, well, dumber.
Well, here’s my advice, if you loved Dumb and Dumber, and can quote the whole movie, you’ll love this one. If you kind of liked Dumb and Dumber, you probably won’t care for it much, and if you hated Dumb and Dumber, then you’ll definitely hate this one. So for all of you Dumb and Dumber fans, get out there and see it! It has a few good surprises too, and stay for the credits, there’s something at the end!
I give this movie a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars because they did a good job at referencing the first film and it was surprisingly funny.
The Qualmist 