Dumb and Dumber To ***

It’s been 20 years since Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels gave us the most idiotic but loveable characters Lloyd and Harry. If you didn’t take to them in 1994, you aren’t going to suddenly fall enamoured with they now. The second film is just two ‘grown up’ versions – in the physical not mental sense.

This time Harry discovers he has a grown-up daughter after picking up long-lost mail. He and best pal Lloyd go on a road trip to find her, especially as Harry needs a kidney donor match.

The original film’s directors, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, have done nothing different this time around. Their characters still say the most stupid things, with Carrey and Daniels still gurning and pulling childish faces throughout. Far from it being described as ‘misogynistic’ , the boys merely ‘engage brain before mouth’, showing their immaturity, which is the whole purpose of the characters.

There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, such as the hapless pair tracking down Harry’s offspring using a return address with hilarious results. Kathleen Turner is onboard as no-nonsense Fraida Felcher, a fling from the lads’ youth, adding some sharp, gravely (sexy) retorts to compliment the pair’s idiotic ones.

The format is very similar to the first film, with each (naturally) going on a coming-of-age journey. This time it’s an interesting prospect just how either will change, if at all, knowing parental responsibility beckons. That gives the plot a little more edge.

For fans, blind, wheelchair-bound Billy (Brady Bluhm) adds a touch nostalgia, as does the trusty doggy mobile – though not featuring as centre-stage as before. Harry and Lloyd have their usual ‘unfunny’ personal in-jokes, which is part of their juvenile appeal.

Dumb and Dumber To knowingly is an out-of-date comedy to the latter-day layperson. For those who loved the first film, the humour has frozen in time. This is quite endearing rather than grating, and very apparent when the pair gatecrashes a future-thinking TED convention and gives a simplistic opinion on what they find. This film is for the Beavis and Butt-head or Bill and Ted generation, or just those partial to a goofy Carrey character. With that in mind, there is nothing to do but be suitably entertained.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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