Review: Dumb and Dumber To
After almost 20 years, Harry and Lloyd have finally returned (for real and not in a terrible prequel) with Dumb and Dumber To, directed again by The Farrelly Brothers.
After finally delivering the punchline of a 20 year “gag”, Lloyd returns home to learn that Harry needs a kidney for some unspecified medical reason and, after striking out at Harry’s parents house, the duo learns that Harry may have had a child with the infamous Frieda Felcher (Kathleen Turner). The pair then head out on another cross country road trip to find Harry’s daughter. Just like the first movie, there’s also a secondary criminal plot involving Fanny aka Penny’s adopted parents, and especially her conniving stepmother, Adele (Laurie Holden). It’s bare bones but it at least holds together better than the first movie’s kidnapping plot, where the reveal of what was actually going on made no sense. There aren’t quite as many detours in To though, as the trip is slightly shorter and once the guys reach their destination of El Paso, they are there for pretty much the last half of the movie, although there is lots of fun to be had when the guys crash the TEDesque KEN conference, like Harry dismissing various potentially world saving technologies. There’s lots of references and call backs to the original as well and it’s fun to see things the Mutt Cutts van and Billy in 4C again (be sure to stay after the credits for another cameo from the original). Some of the jokes are not quite as good, like another of Lloyd’s fantasies that devolves into a martial arts battle, but most of them have a decent twist on the original.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels seem like they easily stepped back into the dim witted shoes of Lloyd and Harry and they have their same back and forth from the original, with Harry being the sweet dumb one and Lloyd being the more antagonistic of the pair. They have the same great attitude where they believe everyone else is the stupid ones, even as they misuse words and get into ridiculous situations. Rob Riggle is disappointingly kind of underused and doesn’t really get to have as much interaction with the duo as Mike Starr as Animal did in the first movie. Riggle is also weirdly reserved, which is definitely not what I want from him, especially in a comedy. Rachel Melvin is fun as the sweetly dumb Penny, who definitely inherited her smarts from her father and constantly misunderstands concepts like how numbers work or how to eat from a hotel serving tray. Kathleen Turner is also really fun as Frieda, and provides some solid, logical balance to the antics of Harry and Lloyd.
The original Dumb and Dumber is one of those movies that feels imbued into my DNA, so the bar for a sequel is pretty much impossible to reach and, while it can’t compare, Dumb and Dumber To is a solid, funny return for the dim witted duo and it’s just fun to spend another two hours with that pair. It probably won’t reach classic status like the original but if you’re a fan, there’s plenty of old and new bits to laugh at.
[rating=3]
