Grade: D
Blockbuster regrets not buying Netflix. France regretted invading Russia. Kim Kardashian hopefully regrets what she did to her eyebrows.
I regret agreeing to watch this movie.
In full disclosure, I have never watched “Dumb and Dumber.” It was not part of my 1990s repertoire. And after watching the sequel, I have no desire to ever waste 107 minutes of my life on the original.
“Dumb and Dumber To” reunites two best friends, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, exactly 20 years after the original was released, to save Harry’s life.
Harry, played by Jeff Daniels, is in need of a kidney. He and Lloyd, played by Jim Carrey, set out to find a matching donor when they discover Harry has a daughter.
What ensues is what’s supposed to be a hilarious journey as the two set out to find Harry’s daughter, who, incidentally, might be the only person who can save his life.
What actually happens is you spend about 80 minutes cringing at the sheer stupidity of these two characters and asking yourself or some higher being why you are in this theater.
Don’t get me wrong — I laughed. There were some funny scenes in this film that I genuinely enjoyed. But for every one of those, there were 10 scenes that had me rolling my eyes. By the end of the film my eye roll function was running on automatic.
This type of idiotic comedy is dying out. We’re more used to situational comedies, such as a drug dealer arranging a fake family in order to move a large shipment of weed from Mexico into the United States in “We’re the Millers.”
Or a group of celebrities who must survive the end of the world in “This Is the End.” Or two stupid cops in their twenties who try to go undercover as high school students to bust a drug operation in “21 Jump Street.”
The characters are still idiots. They do stupid things, but it’s because of the ridiculous situation they’re in. And often, the majority of the comedy is in the dialogue, which has become wittier and darker in the last decade.
The type of comedy in this “Dumb and Dumber” sequel is character comedy. Carrey and Daniels built these characters to be witless. And it is because they’re so dumb that they become involved in ridiculous situations.
Instead of laughing, you just ask, “Why?”
Our generation has simply grown out of that type of comedy.
“Dumb and Dumber To” misses the mark by a long shot. The comedy is outdated. The characters are no longer funny.
Just save yourself the trouble and invade Russia instead.
