My friends and I discovered “Dumb and Dumber” when we were in the sixth grade, a good five or six years after it was released in 1994. But once we discovered it, we treated it like it was God’s gift to film. Although these days I don’t watch movies more than once, we watched “Dumb and Dumber” probably 200 times…no stretch. That doesn’t even count the thousand other times we stopped and watched it on TBS.
My friends and I could quote that movie forwards and backwards. We would be engaging in a normal conversation and then one of us would slip in a “Dumb and Dumber” reference and we would take off from there by playing out the whole scene. It went way beyond the “Big Gulps” and “Kick his ass, Seabass” lines that have become a fabric of our society. When the “Dumb and Dumberer 2: When Harry Met Lloyd” prequel came out I saw that train wreck of a movie on opening night. If I remember correctly, we even tried pretending that it was good.
About the time I was a junior or senior in high school my maturity level improved. No longer did I think “Dumb and Dumber” was the truth. When I passed by the movie on TV I didn’t stop and watch it anymore. No longer did I think imitating Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels to a T was a badge of honor. I had grown sick of the movie.
When the previews for “Dumb and Dumber To” started to come out only one word came to mind: STUPID. It didn’t even look “funny” stupid to me, it just looked “don’t waste your time, this looks awful” stupid. I trashed the movie to everyone I knew. I was being serious though, to me the previews made the film look horrendous.
So even though I thought it looked terrible and even though I took every chance I could to blast it, I still wanted to go on opening weekend. I wanted to pay tribute to my boyhood fandom of the original while also having something to write about. I admit, I was curious to see what the Farrelly brothers had up their sleeves twenty years later. Today I went to the 11:30 a.m. showing of “Dumb and Dumber To” at the Grand 14 Cinema in Market Common.
“Dumb and Dumber To” is more disgusting, more sexual, and more mischievous than the original. I want that to be my bottom line on the movie. With that said, I did find the film pretty darn funny. I laughed from start to end. The film is incredibly stupid, but it was more of the “funny” stupid that I originally thought the film would lack. Some of the jokes are absolutely tasteless, I am talking vomit in your mouth inducing. The actual plot is far-fetched and dumb. Some parts get pretty annoying.
But to me, the aspect I liked most about the movie was Jim Carrey. He still has it. He has something that just makes him different from other comedians. The way he moves and let loose is comedic gold. In this sequel he is much more edgier and sinister than the Lloyd in the original movie. However, I still enjoyed his performance for the most part, even if he did participate in almost all of those annoying parts I just made reference to.
If at any time in your life you were able to quote at least five lines from “Dumb and Dumber” I say give “Dumb and Dumber To” a shot just for nostalgia purposes. If you aren’t a “Dumb and Dumber” fan or have never (gasp) seen the movie before, I suggest you stay away. Sidney went with me to the movie and waited until the end to tell me that she had never seen the first one. She thought “Dumb and Dumber To” was awful. Although I laughed quite a bit, when it comes to the movie I can’t pull a Lloyd Christmas and say in that voice of his that “I LIKED IT A LOT.” Don’t Blink.