There’s a
new craze in Hollywood, spawning sequels, prequels and reboots like mad; it
targets the young and old alike and it’s any Hollywood executive’s best friend,
and that friend is a little thing called nostalgia. Nostalgia can be a great
thing, when in its proper place, like watching an old Disney movie or
reminiscing over family photos, but it has now become a tool for movie studios;
one they use to trick people into seeing movies they normally wouldn’t watch
(prime example: Ninja Turtles). While not all of this is bad (nostalgia is a
great feeling after all, even if it’s being exploited) it seems apparent that
it won’t be long before this fad is driven into the ground like sparkly
vampires and other past trends. From this craze has come the latest in nostalgia
trips, the Dumb and Dumber sequel, exactly two decades after the original.
The thing
about this sequel is that it’s actually not half bad. It’s definitely not as
fresh as the original, but the directors’ decision to keep close to the
original spirit of the first film works for them more than against. One key
difference is that Harry and Lloyd seem a lot meaner than I remember (and I
just recently re-watched the original), sometimes this comes off as pretty
harsh (especially some of the tricks they play on the poor blind kid), but I
will admit that I personally enjoyed the morbid humor. However, some of the off
color humor is a little too crude (at one point Harry and Lloyd yell at a poor
young doctor to “show us your tits!”) I personally thought some of this humor
crossed the line of likability and the characters walk a fine line throughout
the film as well.
Of course,
all of the dumb humor that people loved in the original is back in full force,
and there is more than a few solid laughs in this film, most of them coming
from Jim Carrey. Jeff Daniels does a decent job of reassuming his old role, but
it’s Jim Carrey who really shines here; you can tell he’s positively hamming it
up, and as an old fan it was nice to see him in a familiar role again (there’s
that nostalgia working again).
The plot
isn’t nearly as simple as the first movie, but it’s certainly not hard to
follow and just as with the original it’s more about the relationship between
Harry and Lloyd than anything. If you thought these two had learned from the
last movie to think of anyone other than themselves, you’d be wrong; they’re
just as selfish if not more so. Harry tries to track down his daughter he’s
never met so he can swindle her out of a kidney; and Lloyd only agrees to go
because once again he has an alarmingly creepy fantasy, this time involving
Harry’s daughter.
For Dumb and
Dumber fans, this sequel is definitely not a travesty (in my own humble
opinion), rather it’s a solid tribute and when it’s bringing the laughs you
manage to forget what horrible people Harry and Lloyd actually are. I wouldn’t
recommend this movie to everyone, there’s quite a bit of awfully crude humor
and if that’s not your style Dumb and Dumber To is not something you’re going
to enjoy. However, if crude humor and dumb jokes are heavily amusing to you (as
they are to me) this movie has plenty of laughs. Then again, that could just be
the nostalgia talking, but for just this once, I’ll play along.
-Ryan Maples
Rating: 7.5
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