REVIEW
DUMB AND DUMBERER
Starring Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson and Eugene Levy
Directed by Troy Miller
Opens Friday, June 13
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Dumb & Dumberer is definitely not dumberer than its predecessor. Dumb and Dumber (1994) had everything going for it. Written and directed by the Farrelly Brothers, it starred established funny guys Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey, and set the template for the high-end poo-pee-fart-boobies movie.
Now, for some reason, we have Dumb & Dumberer. Untouched by any of the Farrelly genius that moulded the first film, it stars two relative unknowns (Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen) as Harry and Lloyd, is co-written and directed by TV-movie director Troy Miller, and lacks much of the off-kilter punch of the original. It’s more reminiscent of something Lorne Michaels does with his lame Saturday Night Live skits than anything the Farrellys might have followed up with.
A prequel to Dumb and Dumber, the film portrays simpletons Harry (Richardson) and Lloyd (Olsen) when they first meet in high school. The corrupt principal (Eugene Levy) discovers that he can scam the state for more money if he has a special-needs class. Lloyd and Harry are chosen as inaugural members, and they choose other "disabled" students (a kid with a broken leg, a kid dressed as a horse, the school bully, a narcoleptic football player and a foreign exchange student) to join the class. Wily student journalist Jessica (Rachel Nichols) seeks to foil the principal’s plan and expose his corruption, enlisting the oblivious Lloyd and Harry to help her. Mediocrity ensues, and you sit, chuckling occasionally, waiting for the big payoff that never comes.
There are occasional funny (yet overused) lines like "girls are for fags" and "Victoria’s Secret? Those clothes are for girls!" but the mood is often cancelled out by racist jokes (for some reason, the Chinese are a favourite target of "chong-ching" style "humour"), or watered down by situations that just aren’t funny enough.
Scenes from the original, like Lloyd’s sale of Harry’s dead parakeet to Billy the blind kid, or when they give fresh pee in a bottle to a cop, are completely without parallel. And it goes without saying that Olsen and Richardson can’t match the energy and presence that Carrey and Daniels brought to the first film.
In fact, there isn’t much of anything that made Dumb and Dumber the cult favourite that it is now – this sequel is almost too tame to even be associated with the original. |
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