Even without accounting for the twenty-year gap between the two installments, this is a very worthy sequel to its predecessor – just as silly and hilarious.
Twenty years have passed since the events of the first film, during which inseparable friends Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) have been apart – Lloyd ended up in a mental institution. However, it eventually turns out that Lloyd was playing a prank on his friend, but there’s no time to rejoice in the reunion – Harry has kidney problems and urgently needs to find a suitable donor for a transplant. And just in time, the “news” surfaces that Harry has an adult daughter, but her irresponsible mother (Kathleen Turner) gave her up for adoption many years ago.
It’s easy to understand those who felt pessimistic about “Dumb and Dumber To” even at the announcement stage. After all, Jim Carrey isn’t the same, the Farrelly brothers aren’t the same, we aren’t the same, and the prequel, if anyone has forgotten, was terrible (in fairness, it was made by completely different people). And in general, it’s one thing when two thirty-year-old men are acting like idiots, and quite another when fifty-year-old almost grandfathers are pretending to be morons – it’s somehow embarrassing to laugh at them. All these concerns are understandable – and yes, many of them are not without foundation. But at the same time, “Dumb and Dumber To” is an absolutely textbook example of how to make sequels when it seems like the train has already left, but you really want to.
A Nostalgic Return
The most surprising thing about the film is how similar it is to the first one. And it’s not similar in the sad sense, where the authors replay old sketches for us (and it usually looks pathetic and shameful), but similar as if those twenty years never happened, as if the Farrelly brothers didn’t have a series of weak works, as if the script was written hot on the heels of the first film and the movie was filmed then, just released in theaters now. No, of course, Carrey and Daniels’ age is betrayed by wrinkles, and yes, sometimes you feel uncomfortable for the actors (after all, they’re not at the age to joke about “fart” themes), but all this is written, staged, and played with such youthful enthusiasm and drive that it’s impossible to resist their charm.
Plot and Humor
In terms of plot, the film hasn’t gone far from its predecessor – it’s again a collection of sketches strung on a simple road-movie structure. Lloyd and Harry go to another state for a scientific symposium where the latter’s daughter is located (the charmingly dim-witted Rachel Melvin), and a company of villains follows in their footsteps, trying to get their hands on the inheritance of the girl’s adoptive father – a respected scientist who has made some kind of brilliant discovery. It seems like there’s a plot, but at the same time, it’s as conditional and insignificant as possible, the main thing is what the main characters do along the way.
And what they do is stupid, vulgar, and cynical, but at the same time hilariously funny – of course, provided that you’ve seen the first part and such humor is generally close and understandable to you. Yes, some jokes miss the mark, but the density of gags is so high that unsuccessful ones don’t even have time to take root in the memory, as they are immediately “compacted” by more funny jokes and, of course, the performances of the leading actors – both Daniels and Carrey “burn” as if for the last time.
Box Office and Future
Few in big Hollywood believed in this sequel – the project hung in limbo at Warner for a couple of years, after which the studio abandoned it altogether. As a result, the sequel cost its creators more than twice as much as the original, and earned one and a half times less. But this is an absolutely normal situation, given the twenty-year break and the joyful news that, despite the falling box office numbers, they were more than enough for “Dumb and Dumber To” to pay off twice. We definitely don’t want another twenty-year break, and considering that Farrelly and Carrey are no longer in such high demand as in the mid-90s, and, as they say, “completely free until Friday,” occupying this free time with “Dumb and Dumber 3” is a very good option.
In theaters from January 22.