"Dumb and Dumber To" review: the movie is dumb enough it just might work, again.
The "Dumb and Dumber To" review have yet to percolate, with the movie's release date this week. Unfortunately, initial evaluations of the sequel insist it doesn't live up to the original.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their roles as the juvenile (really infantile) protagonists, but the same jokes pulled decades later won't cut it this time, according to Peter Travers of rollingstone.com:
"The bad news isn't that Carrey and Daniels got old, it's that the jokes did. The spirit is still willing in Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the original writer-directors, but the sagging flesh is weak from prolonged repetition.
Presumably, the Farrelly combo of sentiment and sleaze will never die. Because so many gags fall flat, you may treasure the ones that do. Why? Out of respect for the way Carrey and Daniels throw themselves into gross stupidity."
The Farrelly Brothers had the sequel in the works for the longest time, ever since the hit of the original. The returning "Dumb and Dumber To" cast also helped flesh out the movie into reality. In an interview with screenrant.com, the Farrellys comment on requests to do the sequel:
"Less than we were hoping. Dumb and Dumber was a super fun project, it was our first project. It's fun because you hear guys on something like ESPN saying 'So you're telling me there's a chance!' People use those lines in their day-to-day life. You'll see it on the cover of the New York Post 'Dumb and Dumber' about two politicians or something. It got worked into the lexicon and it's been fun."
Though initial reviews consider the sequel a dud, the Farrelly brothers are likely to keep things in stride. A "Dumber and Dumber To" review from theconcourse.com puts things in perspective:
Before you get too wrapped up in the negative early reaction to 'Dumb and Dumber To,' the 20-years-later sequel to the 1994 mega-hit, remember that critics hated the first one. Critics are notoriously bad at predicting what comedies are going to stand the test of time; the target is always moving on them."
