With Dumb and Dumber To It Is a Throwback to 1994 as Lloyd and Harry Make Us Crack Up

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Dumb and Dumber To Movie Review

A fan of Dumb and Dumber, I was eagerly awaiting the release of Dumb and Dumber To. It is fair to say that many of those walking into the theaters to see Dumb and Dumber To may not have even been born when Dumb and Dumber was released. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels made Lloyd and Harry household names back then as the epitome of dumbness. Exactly after two decades, the Farrelly Brothers once again bring to screen the craziest duo in the annals of cinema. In 2014, we are reintroduced to Lloyd and Harry, two dimwits who by their outrageously moronic antics promise to make us guffaw all over.

Any sequel tends to get judged in the wake of its predecessor, and Dumb and Dumber To isn’t any different. That said, it’s not prudent to judge a movie solely on the basis of the original. After all, it has been a long time since Dumb and Dumber. Apart from the fact that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels have played different roles since their catapulting performances in the 1994 laugh riot, many other things have changed too.

Dumb and Dumber To begins with Harry (Jeff Daniels) paying his old friend Lloyd (Jim Carrey), who is in a mental hospital, a visit much like he has been doing for the better part of the last two decades. Although this time, Harry is in for a surprise as Lloyd, who for the past so many years was unable to speak, reveals to Harry that he was bluffing all this time. Harry and Lloyd then take a road trip across the US to find Harry’s daughter, Penny (Rachel Melvin) who is also a potential kidney donor, as Harry is in need of a kidney. Apart from Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, Dumb and Dumber To has Rachel Melvin, Kathleen Turner, Steve Tom, Rob Riggle and Laurie Holden as the supporting cast.

Sometimes a movie’s final act is the all-important one, making or marring its chances of doing well at the box office, and on other occasions, it’s the journey that matters and not the destination. Dumb and Dumber To falls into the latter category. I know for sure that everyone, including myself, had a ball watching the sheer silliness and stupidity of the duo, and no one was thinking about the finale. It’s almost like the ending didn’t matter.

Surely, seen in comparison to the original movie, this one doesn’t have as many funny moments to savor, but it is still hell of a lot better than most other comedies you’d have likely seen. Although, Dumb and Dumber To starts off well, it’s in the middle that it tends to slow down in tempo, which it tries to recover toward the end. Fans of Dumb and Dumber will say that it is not as well-scripted as the original. I’d have to agree with that as the original script was more compact while this one seems to be all over the place, at least at times during its nearly three-hour long duration.

In the end, whichever way you look at it, Dumb and Dumber To is not as good as the original. However, that’s not the point. The point is if it entertains or not. And without doubt I must say that it succeeds in doing that. A last word, and it’s no surprise that the humor here is pretty crude and has a lot of sexual underpinnings to it. Dumb and Dumber To is an adult comedy, and so no one expects it to be kid-friendly. If you haven’t seen Dumb and Dumber To yet, go and have a blast.