Why So Blu?

‘Dumb and Dumber To’ Takes Us Down To Many Familiar Rodes (Movie Review)

I honestly cannot believe it’s been twenty years since Dumb and Dumber almost made me piss my pants from laughter when I first saw it in the theater.  I still remember it like it was only yesterday.  My friend Bryan and I ventured out on opening night in Ohio to see this one theatrically and I remember the Ex-Lax related scene fondly because that was the one and only time I ever saw people in a theater literally fall out of their chairs laughing.  I’ve seen people jump out of their chairs while scared out of their wits during a horror film, but I had never before then seen anyone fall out of their chairs and roll down the declining aisle cracking up.  The Hangover is probably the closest I have ever come to seeing that ever happen again.  It was close, but no cigar.

So here we are twenty years later and so much has changed in our physical world, some for the worst and some for the best, but thankfully not that much in Harry and Lloyd’s.  LOL.  However, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  We’ll get to that in a minute when we talk about the plot, but for now let’s talk about the sequel to the original smash hit appropriately titled Dumb and Dumber To.  And no!  That is not a grammar mistake!  That’s the name of the comedy film we are all gathered here today to discuss.

Thank the Gods for this news because Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are both onboard here to reprise their signature roles as Lloyd and Harry in this comedic sequel.  The original film’s directors, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, take us with Lloyd and Harry on a comedic road trip to find a child Harry never knew he had and the responsibility neither should ever, ever be given.  LOL.  If you’re a fan of the original film, then you know exactly what I’m talking smack about Harry here.  The cast rounds out with the likes of Kathleen Turner, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin, Rob Riggle plus a few other cameos and trips down memory lane that I won’t spoil for y’all.

If Dumb and Dumber To does nothing more than take fans of the first film down a beloved, nostalgic memory lane, then I say it accomplished what it set out to do.  However, Dumb and Dumber To seems like it wants to be more than that, but that’s just one of its shortcomings that prevented me from loving this one as much as I really did want to.  In actuality think of it like this if you will.  Remember how they froze Han Solo in carbonite at the end of Empire?  Well, that same logic can be applied here because it’s almost like time was literally suspended for twenty years since we last saw our lunatic duo in the 1994 original film.

So as we already established, but I’ll repeat it again, Carrey and Daniels return as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne.  Just an FYI…all of this is in the trailers so I just wanted to let you know that I’m not divulging any trade secrets here or spoiling anything (unless you are completely going into this blind, then stop reading this now…final warning).  We start our journey out here with Lloyd pretending to be in a vegetative state, devastated after the events of the first film where he could not win the love of Mary Swanson, while it’s made known that Harry makes weekly visits to care for him in the hospital, which seemingly includes changing his diapers too.  After it’s revealed that Lloyd has been pretending for over 20 years, one long huge prank, Harry reveals his own medical secret and we learn that he has a long lost daughter too, which he never knew about.  This leads us to the infamous Fraida Felcher, portrayed by Kathleen Turner here, that we heard so much about in the original film.  The duo eventually set out to find that estranged daughter, Penny (Rachel Melvin), in a road trip that feels awfully familiar in my opinion, with people trying to kill them and familiar cameos in abundance.

Dumb and Dumber To basically feels like an attempt to bring the Dumb and Dumber world into current times.  In other words the Farrelly Brothers play it safe.  In fact, it’s almost as if you broke the original film down into the individual beats, and I’m not talking metaphorically I’m talking literally, they’re all reproduced here.  Expect some murder attempts where the guys are unknowingly clueless as to what’s going on.  Expect a ninja fight dream sequence.  Expect Lloyd to fall for someone he’ll never get.  Heck!  Expect to hear every joke that worked in the first film repeated over in here, not to mention cameos galore, but I like that stuff.  I could go on and on about all the ways in which they heavily borrowed from the first, but I think you get the point.

You’ll laugh and maybe even cry in a few scenes (tears of laughter), but you’ll never be floored and shocked like you were in the first film.  There’s nothing that matches the comedic grossout moments of the first film, like the Ex-Lax scene I made reference to before, in this one.  To make matters worse, when a joke works, they also kind of beat it to a bloody pulp in this one (think James Bond).  This and The Hangover Part II kind of gives validity to the phrase lightning never strikes in the same place twice.  Don’t you think?

Probably what worked best for me here was the pacing, it felt deliberately quick, but I was oaky with that, and the actors.  It was great seeing the older actors reprise their roles like they did not miss a beat.  Sure they have a few more wrinkles.  Who doesn’t?  They just owned their roles and that was that.  However, it was Rob Riggle, who really tickled my funny bone the most.  Let’s just say he plays a couple roles in this one and it was an absolute blast to see him partake in the mayhem here after just laughing my a$$ off at him over in my 22 Jump Street review over here.  While there’s no denying the stars were  brilliantly in alignment some twenty years ago when the original film was birthed, you’d be hard press to assume lightning was going to strike twice here.  See!  I did what The Farrelly Brothers did in this movie.  I used something that worked well the first time for me over again.  And that’s exactly what you are going to find here.  It’s like reheating leftovers from last night’s dinner.  I know it kind of sucks, but at least you’ll know what to expect, right?  Exactly!  So if you go into this expecting more of just the same, then I think you will “safely” say it was passable and worth your time.  However, I will warn you.  If you going in expecting to laugh like it’s 1994, please have a few drinks first.  Maybe there’s an Alamo Drafthouse in your neighborhood.  Enjoy!

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