Dumb and Dumber To Review part 1
I’ll give it a B- for effort but an A+ for marketing.
It seems to me a middle ground has to be struck between the producers of a film and the producers of the advertizing trailers as to how much should the trailer give away. Some movies give hardly anything away leaving you with (a) the fact that a movie was made, (b) the title of the movie, and (c) someone who may or may not appear in the film 
(let us not forget how Bryan Cranston was all over every trailer for Godzilla possible only to vanish after about 20 minutes of film leaving us with a cast of characters I couldn’t give less of a damn about. Image courtesy of the horror movie t shirt category). Some trailers suck every ounce of nourishment from the movie like a starving vampire and leave the actual film lying on the screen like a dedicated corpse. And of course the optimal trailer hits that sweet spot right in the middle with just enough to peak your interest but not enough to make you feel like you just saw the whole film in 60 seconds.
Dumb and Dumber To unfortunately falls into the second camp. There were three really good jokes in the film but unfortunately I had seen them about 30 times each thanks to trailers and when they came up in the film I could almost speak the lines myself. The rest of the jokes were meh-tastic so I guess someone in marketing knows what he or she is doing.
I think I have come up with a perfect analogy to describe most of the jokes in this film. Imagine you have graduated high school and moved on with your life with nary a look behind you. You attend the 20 year reunion and at that reunion you end up sitting at a table with the party guy of your class who is desperate to recapture a moment of how cool he was back then before a lifetime of working at a local surf shop and he keeps telling stories that all begin with “Remember the time when…”. “Remember the time when Eric puked into Gary’s tuba?” You smile and nod with the vague sense of nostalgia normally reserved for finding a half cup of leftover mac n cheese in the refrigerator. It’s amusing in a “technically funny” way but the timing is grossly out of whack and at no time do you feel the need to burst out into belly busting guffaws of laughter like when you first saw Gary blow into a vomit filled tuba.
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Dumb and Dumber To Review part 2
That’s pretty much the humor of this film in a nutshell. The jokes are there and they are all technically funny but for the most part it’s all pointing to jokes that were done way better back in 1994 with better timing and more pizzazz. Most of the best new humor came from the new straight man Travis (Rob Riggle). There were a few funny moments but for the most part you sit there acknowledging the humor rather than laughing at it.
That’s not to say it wasn’t funny or worthwhile. If you loved the first Dumb and Dumber odds are you will enjoy a lot of the call backs. If fart humor makes you laugh there are a couple moments that are really great (I admit I have a certain penchant to laugh hysterically at a good fart joke. So I’m lowbrow. Sue me. In college my best friend had a maneuver he used to call crop dusting. I’ll just say it was hilarious and high end outdoor restaurants were his favorite target). However I just felt it was a lot of the same Lloyd and Harry bumbling around the screen without being surprising or amazing like last time.
I’ll also say too much of the comic relief. What made the first movie really work was the fact that Lloyd and Harry were so stupid dealing with people of at least normal intelligence. What does not add to that humor is the addition of another character just as stupid but who also happens to be a super hot chick in her underwear. Floyd and Harry were dumb, looked dumb, and had dumb haircuts. 
Rachel Melvin is super hot and in spite of what guys seem to want there is something really off putting about super hot super dumb girls (on the other hand she starred in something called Zombeavers this year so that makes her my favorite new breakout star. Image from one of the zombie t-shirts in my personal collection).
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Dumb and Dumber To Review part 3
The story. It’s now 20 years after the last film and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) has been in a comatose state for the entire time. Harry (Jeff Daniels) has been visiting him and helping change his diaper but then finds out that it has all been a long practical joke (no spoiler there. That is one of the three really good jokes that were played in the trailers). Harry needs a kidney and when they find out he has an illegitimate daughter they go seeking her. Some roundabout circumstances lead them to her adopted parents who send them on a cross country trip in an amusing vehicle to deliver a mysterious sealed object to a girl. If that script sounds a lot like the story of the first Dumb and Dumber then I acknowledge your pattern recognition ability.
Other stuff happens too. Rob Riggle goes along with them for some reason and they end up at a science conference but really just rewind the first Dumb and Dumber on the movie screen in your mind and you have seen this film.
2 of 5 Meh.
So worth seeing? Well, normally no but thanks to the giant wrecking ball known as Mockingjay there is literally zilcho coming out lately so sure. Any port in a storm I guess. If you were a fan of the the first one you will probably enjoy it but if not the 109 minutes will drag on with glacier slowness. The good news is this film does not really require a lot of higher brain function so if you are looking for a film to get really stoned and/or drunk before seeing you have found your muse. Personally I think Nightcrawler is both better and in a weird way funnier. Date movie? Not unless she likes excrement jokes. Bathroom break? Nothing really stands out as “must see” for this film. Maybe the scene where Harry and Lloyd are trying to get into the science con but don’t dawdle as the scene with Stephen Hawking is one of the funnier ones. 2 out of 5 phasers.
the Infamous Dave Inman
PS I just heard that they hired to do the new Wonder Woman move Michelle MacLaren. She did a bunch of work on Breaking Bad and Walking Dead so that’s pretty cool news. I don’t know why I just put that in here. I guess it’s kind of exciting plus a chance to show off this great Wonder Woman t shirt.
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