Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Written by—

Wait a minute. This movie was written by six people? No. This movie should have been five times as funny with just two people writing, let alone... Ah, screw it. Back to the format.

Written by far too many people
Release Date: 14 November 2014
Running Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Editor’s Rating: 2 out of 4 sequels that waited twenty years to disappoint its audience


In the mid 90s, Jim Carrey could have done anything he wanted in show business. He could have gone to any studio in Hollywood, said “I want to do a movie where I drop a Slinky down the stairs of an ancient Tibetan temple,” and get it made. Actually, he did, and it was called Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls, but what wouldn’t happen for another year. But what he did end up doing was a movie by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, two guys that had never done a full-length feature for the big screen. He was teamed with Jeff Daniels, of all people, to play a couple of mooks taking a road trip. So when the movie was a huge hit, It cemented Carrey’s status as a megastar and gave the Farrelly Brothers the clout to make a name for themselves. Fans of Dumb and Dumber clamored for a sequel, only to have it fall upon deaf ears.

Until 2003.

Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was a prequel no one had asked for, especially since the title roles from the first movie, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, were not being played by Carrey and Daniels. Needless to say, when the most memorable part of the film was a reaction from Bob Saget, the movie only served to enrage the fanbase, still ranting and raving for an actual sequel. And when Dumb and Dumber To came around in 2014, with Carrey and Daniels back in the lead, and left just as easily, the world realized that maybe some things are better to stay in the past. Ha, who am I kidding, we'll be re-living these nostalgia trips until we die; isn't that right David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson? But I digress.

Now let me get this out there right off the bat: this isn’t a terrible movie. It has its moments, and you will be chuckling, maybe even laughing, a good part of the way while watching it.

BUT—

This is a film that was expected for 20 years. And it feels like it should have been a sequel that came out a year after the original, rushed out to jack up numbers for some stupid marketing scheme. The thing that makes a good sequel is taking characters we fell in love with and putting them in new situations, while whatever skills they possess solve their problems in ways that might wink to the original. But D&D To all too often relies on instances from the first film to make jokes funny. And several scenes just exist to make the direct comparison to the original, jokes and all, without servicing the plot or being funny in their own right. It’s downright disappointing at times, and this is coming from a series of films where the comedy is mostly fart jokes being conveyed by total idiots, like a wrap party for Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo and Mountain Monsters combined. You are at the literal ground floor of comedy here, folks - there’s too much wiggle room here to be confined by a film that’s two decades old.

Oh jeez, I went right into my diatribe on this one, didn’t I? Well, to give a quick elevator synopsis, Lloyd comes out of a fake coma to discover that Harry needs a kidney transplant, and the only way they can get a kidney is through Harry’s long-lost daughter. When they arrive at her house, she has left to give a present to someone across the country, and being her father’s daughter, she forgot it. So it’s up to Harry and Lloyd to get to the conference and make sure the package is delivered, Harry meets his daughter, and then somehow talks her into giving up a kidney. Twists happen, Rob Riggle plays two people, and shenanigans are had by all. Whee.

Sadly, I’ve never felt as disappointed by a movie’s credit sequence as I had this one. Basically, a slideshow of side-by-side clips from the first D&D and the second plays as the initial credits roll. Five slides in, I’d never wanted to watch Dumb and Dumber more than I had right then. And the saddest part of my night was realizing I didn’t own it to wash To’s taste out of my mouth. I had to dream funny dreams of Jeff Daniels explosively evacuating his lower intestine instead of actually watching it.

It wasn’t the same.

**I rented this film from Redbox, and I recommend anyone interested in the film do likewise. I was not compensated for this review**