Unfunny, mean-spirited and, for the most part, leaden in its execution, this 19-years-later sequel to Dumb & Dumber proves not everything improves with age, least of all the misadventures of two dimwits whose faces have grown much older but whose hair has inexplicably remained exactly the same. Seriously, it was like watching old guys who think no one knows they’re wearing really bad toupées. (The fact that I not only noticed, but found this incredibly distracting, should be an indication of just how uninvested I was in the actual film.) This time around, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) embark on a cross-country mission to track down the latter’s long-lost adult daughter – a sweet-but-dim bulb named Jenny (Rachel Melvin) – because Harry is in need of a kidney transplant and Lloyd hopes his offspring will cough up an organ to a man she’s never met. No, really, that’s what the movie is about.
Along the way, the dopey duo desperately try to reclaim some of their mid-1990s idiot glory by doing stupid things, saying stupid things, and generally just being stupid and hugely irritating. The result is a tedious retread of a movie, and one that has a decidedly meaner edge than its predecessor. Lloyd, especially, seems like a monumental jerk, who’s out to make life miserable for his best friend and everyone else. He’s not likeable at all, and the filmmakers seem to be under the mistaken impression that asshat = funny. It doesn’t.
Oh, and poor Jeff Daniels. He’s not convincing in the least, and all I could see was his Newsroom alter ego, Will McAvoy, slumming in a project so far beneath him that the only explanation for his presence has to be a humungous pay cheque.
So, why two slices? One each for Rob Riggle and The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden, who were the only two enjoyable things in the entire movie. Riggle’s conniving conspirator/special-ops soldier was a refreshing delight, and Holden’s scheming trophy wife a nice addition to the otherwise woeful mix. As the relative straight men to Lloyd and Harry’s lunacy, these two actually made me laugh.
Otherwise, though, the laughs were very few and very, very far between. My guess is that even diehard fans of the original will find this sequel to be a big disappointment.
