Dumb And Dumber To

Have you seen all of those commercials for the new Dumb And Dumber To? Then, you have seen everything you need to see (with the exception of one very awesome and subtle cameo).

Twenty years after the events of the first one, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are about to go on another misadventure. Harry’s health is failing and only an unlikely kidney transplant will save him. However, fate is about to intervene.

It turns out Harry spent a night of passion with Fraida Felcher (Kathleen Turner) some twenty or so years ago, and she had a daughter, who was given up for adoption. After realizing the daughter is quite gorgeous, Lloyd convinces Harry they should set off to find her and convince the young lady to donate a kidney to the father she never knew. Lloyd even hopes she will give him her heart.

Writers/directors The Farrelly Brothers had a great and amazing hot streak when they put out Dumb And Dumber, Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary, but, lately, it has been all Three Stooges and Movie 43 (count yourselves among the lucky if you never were subjected to Movie 43, they could drop copies of that movie on ISIS and win the war if it didn’t violate the Geneva Conventions). I guess that’s why they felt it was more profitable and, potentially, more successful to go back to the well for Dumb And Dumber To. It was funnier, but not by enough.

Dumb And Dumber To starts strong, but fades quickly, like your motivation at work on a Friday or my willpower when I drive past the bakery. The audience gets plenty of giggles and laughs at the immature, juvenile humor (especially if the audience is full of 13-year old boys), but Bobby and Peter Farrelly don’t sustain the comedy. They don’t even get as outrageous as many would want.

Dumb And Dumber To drags and drags as the audience moves past the first few scenes where we reunite with Lloyd and Harry. The novelty wears off, and, after that, The Farrellys don’t have very much to offer.

The pair is trying very hard to revive everything you liked about the first movie, but Dumb And Dumber To is not as surprising, not as original, and not as lovable. It goes off the tracks as the search to find the daughter intersects with a crazy subplot about her adoptive father and the people in his life. It feels desperately grafted on to the original story because our writers/directors ran out of material.

Yet, Carrey and Daniels sell the hell out of this. They still make a great pair. Carrey is perfect as the overconfident, arrogant ignoramus with the questionable ethics, while Daniels wins over the audience with his dullard naivety and earnest heart. No matter how ridiculous the material, these two mostly find some way to make you giggle a bit.

There are many better movies out in theaters right now (St. Vincent, Interstellar, Big Hero 6, Fury, Nightcrawler), but you will get some laughs out of Dumb And Dumber To, especially if you have the sense of humor of an 8th grader (and who doesn’t?). Plus, good luck figuring out where the cameo is and who it is.

Dumb And Dumber To is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, partial nudity, language and some drug references.