Dumb and Dumber To

Watching Dumb and Dumber To is a lot like attending your high school reunion, and being reunited with two of your best friends from your teenage years that you used to think were hilarious, and learning that while you've grown up, your friends have not.  They're still the same, and they're still telling the same jokes they used to.  You smile, maybe you even laugh once in a while.  But as the night wears on, you start to wonder what you saw in these two guys during your younger years in the first place.

I was 17 when the original Dumb and Dumber came out back in 1994, and I remember finding it funny.  Revisiting it recently, its charms have faded somewhat, though it still has some laughs.  The sequel had much the same effect on me.  There are some big laughs, surrounded by long stretches that don't work quite as well.  At the very least, those who still hold the original film close to their hearts will not be disappointed.  Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels may not look as young as they did 20 years ago, but they still display the same boyish charm that they did in the first.  In fact, it's impressive that they still have the energy to pull off these characters.  The movie has been tailor made for people who still view the first movie as something special, which should immediately tell you whether or not you are the right audience for it. 

As the film opens, we catch up with the two halfwits, Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels), and learn what they've been up to for the past 20 years.  Lloyd has been locked away in a nursing home, as part of an elaborate prank on Harry, pretending that he's been in a catatonic coma for the past two decades.  He suddenly decides just now to let his friend in on the gag, which leads to a scene where Harry must yank out Lloyd's catheter. (The first of many jokes in the film built around bodily fluids.)  As for Harry, he still lives in the same apartment the two shared in the first movie, only now he shares it with a stray cat he calls Butthole, and a meth cooker named Ice Pick (Bill Murray, in a very short cameo that could have and should have been expanded on).  It's around this time we learn that Harry has some news to break to Lloyd.  He needs a kidney transplant, or else he is not long for this world.

In their search for a donor for Harry, the guys come across an old flame named Fraida Felcher (Kathleen Turner), who informs them that she had a daughter whom she gave up for adoption years ago, and she believes that Harry was the father.  Since the daughter is the best bet for a genetic match for Harry's kidney, they travel cross country to track her down.  The daughter in question is Penny Pinchelow (Rachel Melvin), and she seems to share the same I.Q. as her dim-witted dad.  She resides with a noted scientist (Steve Tom), whose life is in danger, because his gold-digging wife (Laurie Holden) and her adult son (Rob Riggle) are poisoning him to inherit his fortune early.  Naturally, Lloyd and Harry will get wrapped up in this plot, without a clue of what's going on, or even possibly how they got involved in the first place.

Like a lot of sequels, Dumb and Dumber To expands upon a lot of ideas from the first film.  Remember the most annoying sound in the world from the first movie?  Now we get introduced to the second most annoying.  The fantasy sequence Jim Carrey had the first time around where he got in a kung-fu fight protecting the woman he was in love with?  Now it's an even more elaborate fantasy built around ninjas and superheroes.  It's common to go bigger with sequels, but it's also common to go so big that it overshoots the joke, and that happens a lot here.  The movie is at its best when it's just allowing Carrey and Daniels to be their likably goofy selves.  They still have these characters down, and it's great to see them together on the screen again.  But that sense of nostalgia of seeing the characters again can only go so far, and this is a very bloated movie that runs for almost two hours. 

In a lot of ways, my experience watching this movie was similar to that of when I was watching Anchorman 2 almost a year ago.  It brings back fun memories, and there are laughs to be had, but the filmmakers seem to be kind of at a loss when it comes to where to go with the characters for their encore.  For every joke that does work, there's at least three or five that don't.  And if you've never seen the original, you're going to miss out on the call back jokes, such as when we catch up with Billy, the blind boy whom Lloyd memorably sold a dead bird to in the first one.  This is essentially a movie built for a very specific audience.  If you know you are part of that audience, go and have a great time.  You'll probably love it.  I enjoyed it part of the time, but thought it ran a bit long, and ran out of steam long before it was over.

I'm not sorry I saw Dumb and Dumber To.  It brought back some fun memories.  Of course, watching the original on TV would have the exact same effect, and would also save money on the ticket price.  For me, that would be enough.  It may not be for you.  If it isn't, then this is the movie for you.

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