Dumb And Dumber To
Bobby and Peter Farrelly
The story: Lloyd (Jim Carrey) has been committed to a medical facility for years and his best friend Harry (Jeff Daniels) has been faithfully visiting him. It turns out to be an elaborate prank (it is no spoiler as this is already in the trailer) and the two dimwits set off on a new adventure. They need to track down Harry’s newly discovered daughter (Rachel Melvin) as he needs a kidney transplant. The sequel to Dumb And Dumber (1994).

At the start of the film, Lloyd is confined to a medical care facility. Wild-haired and unkempt, he seems to have lost control of his limbs and bodily functions. Mentally, he does not seem to be all there either. He is as helpless as a baby and needs to be cared for like one.
It turns out to be an elaborate prank, one that is 20 years in the making.
Talk about commitment to comedy. It is a claim made not just for Lloyd, but also for writer-directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly.
It is also a short and smart way of accounting for the two-decade absence of Lloyd and Harry from the big screen. Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd from 2003 does not count as it was a prequel. Also, it did not involve the Farrelly Brothers or Carrey and Daniels.
In this sequel, the brothers are determined to make you laugh and they unleash the full arsenal of rib-tickling weaponry on you.
There are the physical gags which include Harry pulling out a catheter from Lloyd’s groin area and the two farting in a car to overwhelm an unsuspecting victim. There are jokes playing on how dumb they are and include oblivious word substitution by Lloyd: A “genetic organ match” becomes “genital organ match”. And there is the general mayhem that ensues when the two are let loose on a brainiac scientific convention.
The jokes are hit and miss, but it helps that the actors are committed to them.
Carrey and Daniels are totally game to make fools of themselves while Kathleen Turner (The War Of The Roses, 1989) has fun as a one-time tramp who fooled around with Lloyd and Harry.
For all the dumb antics and rude innuendos, there is a sweet centre to this confection. There is something touching about the life-long friendship between the two men and their air of cheery optimism in the face of insults and putdowns. So what if they are the butt of jokes? They might just have the last laugh.
(ST)