by Joseph Rossi
Nostalgia stinks.
The comedy of my youth was Dumb and Dumber. I remember back in 1994 when Jim Carrey was becoming a household name — my fourteen year old self wandered in a movie house and laughed my ass off for an hour and a half. To this day if I ever catch it on TV or find it buried on my DVD shelf I will sit and watch and of course laugh until my nose bleeds.
I’ll admit, I got nostalgic when I saw the trailer for Dumb and Dumber To — I laughed. I hoped for the best. I remember being disappointed with other long in the making sequels. Star Wars: Episode 1 was a heart breaker. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of who Cares was even worse. But I don’t blame the filmmakers. They are trying to recapture magic. It’s my expectations that killed the experience. So Lucas and Spielberg get a pass.
For this film however, the filmmakers get all the blame.
This sequel, which is 20 years too late, is bad. Really bad. It’s not that I have lost my sense of pleasure with whatever is grossly infantile. I love toilet humor and I’m proud to say it. I will always recommend the Farrelly Brothers own Kingpin as their greatest comedy of disgusting manners. But here I’m seeing a gaggle of screenwriters and filmmakers re-hash the same lines, characters and plot as the first film.
Lloyd (Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) go on a road trip to find Harry’s long lost daughter. Along the way they get mixed up with a murder plot involving a wealthy scheme and some dim witted henchmen. Sound familiar. Of course it is. After 20 years I expected the comedy of century. What I see is laziness. Why re-hash? Carrey and Daniels try their best but are saddled with too many lame throwaway gags that are hit or miss, mainly miss.
Make no mistake, you will laugh, but not enough to warrant the admission fee.
