It’s no surprise that the directing team of Bobby and Peter Farrelly would write, produce, and direct The Three Stooges, the 2012 modern-day update with new actors playing Moe, Larry, and Curly. The Stooges’ brand of dim-witted lunacy and aggressive slapstick is seen throughout the Farrelly Brothers’ work, including their feature-film debut, Dumb and Dumber.
Starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, who are perfectly described by the film’s title, Dumb and Dumber was a smash hit, turning a $17 million budget into $247 million at the box office. It led to an animated series in 1995 written by the film’s co-writer Bennett Yellin and also the 2003 prequel, which involved none of the principals. After years of speculation and an announcement in 2011, the sequel Dumb and Dumber To finally hit theaters in 2014
The film opens 20 years later and the characters haven’t gotten any wiser over that time. Right away, there’s a focus on urination, letting the viewers know they should expect the same type of toilet humor. It’s funny that little has changed around their apartment over two decades. Bird-lover Billy still lives in 4C and their 10 poster featuring Bo Derek is still on the wall. However, Harry has a new roommate, a meth maker, which is an odd throwaway joke since it’s based on Breaking Bad, a gag sure to lose meaning quickly. Ever odder is the roommate is played by a Hazmat-suit-wearing Bill Murray, though if you blink you’ll miss it. Such a missed opportunity to have him do so little.
Like the previous film, Lloyd and Harry are sent on a road trip. Here, it’s because Harry is ill and needs a kidney. When he discovers he was adopted by his Asian parents, he goes in search of his daughter Fanny, who was given up for adoption by her mother (Kathleen Turner) nine months after their one-night stand. Complicating matters, Lloyd falls in love with her after seeing her picture.
Now known as Penny, they track her to her adopted parents, Dr. Bernard and Adele Pinchelow, in Maryland but she has gone to El Paso, Texas to give a speech about her father’s invention, which could be worth billions. The guys head off to find her unaware that Adele and her lover Travis (Rob Riggle) are trying to kill Bernard and Penny to get the money for themselves.
Although Dumber To suffers a bit like many sequels do from not being as good as the original and covering similar ground at times, fans who enjoyed the first film should be happy with the return of Lloyd and Harry. Carrey and Daniels certainly give it their all in playing dumb, but the script needed funnier material.
Deserving of a special mention are those responsible for the camouflage makeup Riggle wears. Not sure if any digital trickery was involved, but it looks to be just makeup and he looks fantastic.
The Blu-ray has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and the audio is available as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The extras include an Alternate Opening (HD, 2 min) that doesn’t seem much different until last few seconds, eight Deleted/Extended Scenes (HD, 10 min) that aren’t missed, a Gag Reel (HD, 7 min), the six-part making of “That’s Awesome!” – The Story of Dumb and Dumber To (HD, 45 min), and What’s So Smart About Dumb and Dumber To (HD, 6 min).
While there’s not as many laughs and shocks this time around, and I thought the shocks outnumbered the laughs in Dumb and Dumber, there are still enough of both to be had here, especially if watched with both friends and alcohol, to make it worth viewing at a reasonable price. Those new to Lloyd and Harry should definitely not start here since some of the gags are derived from events in the previous film.
