#dumbandumber

The Farrellys have reunited with Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey in a remarkably unfunny film that manages the gross out, but falls short of providing any kind of comedy.  

I was once a big fan of the Farrelly’s work, and I still find some of the extended sequences in There’s Something About Mary and the first Dumb and Dumber really quite hilarious.  The problem with the particular brand of gross-out comedy that the brothers specialise in is that it can quickly become a one-trick pony.  

No one camps outside a cinema waiting for the next Tom Green vehicle to come along because if you’re a comedian who relies on sucking cows udders or putting live mice in your mouth before feeding it to a python, you can very quickly run out of material.  Even great comedians change their writing team at their peril, but if you don’t actually have anything beyond being an attention seeking class clown, work will dry up pretty fast.  

And it’s essentially the same thing with Jim Carrey in these movies.  In the same way that Arnie made the canny move into comedy and revitalised his career, Carry had sidestepped into serious acting and probably should’ve stayed there.  Going back into comedy and trying to recapture the manic stupidity of a film made 20 years ago wasn’t probably the best idea, but those mortgages in Hollywood don’t pay themselves.  The problem might be that since becoming a legit actor, Carrey is just thinking too much about being funny, rather than being let loose in front of camera and being asked to act stupid.  Whatever the reason, most of the jokes misfire, don’t go far enough, or in the case of the running Kathleen Turner isn’t-she-old-and-fat-now gag, keeps going long after it should’ve been retired.  

The main problem with Dumb and Dumber To is the flabby script.  The first film was, by comparison, tightly scripted with a crowd-pleasing mix of bullet fast jokes and visual gags and extended set pieces.  And these aren’t really present in this ill-advised sequel.  Many of the gags fail simply because it looks like the directors and the two stars just can’t be bothered doing it properly or rehearsing or refining any of the gags.  As a result the film comes across as one of those studio mandated lame ducks that came in being because people believed that by bringing a load of people together who had been quite amusing 20 years ago will be just as funny today.  And it isn’t.