When dimwitted Harry (Jeff Daniels) discovers he has a long lost daughter, he and equally stupid Lloyd (Jim Carey) embark on a cross country road trip, culminating at the annual KEN festival, a meeting of the brightest scientists on the planet, where Harry’s daughter is meant to deliver a speech.
We say, “It’s so much like the original that it’s more of a remake than a sequel.”
TAYLOR: I was a fan of the original film. I even watched and enjoyed the first sequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry met Lloyd, which didn’t have Daniels or Carey starring. They were silly, crude and yes, I was 20 years younger, but they made me laugh just the same.
Dumb and Dumber To is just terrible. The plot is exactly the same as the first film, except in this incarnation, Lloyd is lusting after Harry’s daughter rather than Mary Samsonite. They both travel across the country attempting to make us laugh by being idiots along the way. There’s bad guys involved who misunderstand why they’re actually after Lloyd and Harry, just like in the first film. The two morons even have to dress up to go to a function they have no business attending. I can’t stress this enough, this “sequel” is exactly the same as Dumb and Dumber! Yet somehow, the film is worse. I didn’t laugh once.
HOWE: Wow, where does the time go? I also watched the original and hated it. This time out I went with an open mind, thinking it couldn’t be any worse than the first. Oh, how wrong could I be? I never thought I would witness another contender for Worst Movie, Ever (like The Three Stooges), yet here we have Dumb and Dumber To vying for that award, nominated by myself.
There are jokes in it, but they are supplied from Travis/Capt. Lippincott (Rob Riggle) and never when “the Mensa two” are on screen. How were they able to make it nearly two hours long with such a lame storyline, and even lamer jokes? My old cat coughing up fur balls is funnier than this.
TAYLOR: The only real difference between the two films is that the writers and directors, the Farrelly brothers, ran out of ideas a long time ago (the only semi-decent movie they’ve released since the ‘90s was Hall Pass, and that’s not saying much). It took six idiots to write this U.S. Thanksgiving turkey, if you can believe that.
However, we can’t blame the Farrellys for everything. Both Daniels and Carey seem to be playing cartoon versions of Harry and Lloyd. The facial contortions, double takes and Carey’s signature overacting push their performances from what should have been acceptably ridiculous into a mockery of themselves, or at least their characters. So, in short, everyone involved in the making of this film should hang their heads in shame. Unfortunately, audiences seem to want to watch excrement splattered across their screens, so it’s likely that this kind of thing will continue. I would have preferred to just watch the original again.
HOWE: Me, not so much.
– Taylor gives Dumb and Dumber To 0 jokes out of 5.
– Howe gives it 0.5 crackling candy packets out of 5.
– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column, Reel Reviews, appears Friday and Sunday.
