Dumb and Dumber To
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Dumb and Dumber To

The best that can be said about Dumb and Dumber To is that if it ain’t broke, they sure ain’t trying to fix it. Lloyd (Carrey) has spent the last twenty years in a coma, only don’t worry – it was all a prank played on his equally dim-witted buddy Harry (Daniels). It turns out Harry needs a kidney and his only surviving blood relative is a long-lost daughter. Road trip! Just like the first film. Also, Lloyd falls in love with Harry’s daughter the second he sees her picture – which is basically the same plot twist as the relationship in the first film. Plus, there are a couple of evil schemers, one of which tags along on the dim-witted duo’s road trip so he can get increasingly annoyed at their idiocy. You can probably guess which movie that comes from.
It’s tempting to say that it’s not the duo (and returning writer – directors, the Farrelly brothers) that have changed in 20 years, it’s the world around them – and it’s true that the original wasn’t exactly a smoothly polished all-class comedy machine. But while both Daniels and Carrey throw their all into their performances (and there is the occasional acknowledgement that while they haven’t grown up, they have at least aged), this is a cruder, blunter film, made by people less excited by what they can get away with and more interested in taking home a pay cheque.
It’s simplistic to think that the first film was made for love while this one is made for money, but that’s as good a way to explain the difference in tone between the two as any. The occasional joke lands, and you kind of have to admire the relentless drive to offend and insult, but the fun seems to have gone out of Harry and Lloyd’s antics, and without that there just isn’t that much left to enjoy.