Dumb And Dumber
āThat was so stupid it was almost funny.ā A dismissive, yet positive appraisal given to many a goofball yet funny comedy over the years by many different people (most notably my dad), and it rightly sums up the appeal of a LOT of films in that genre, namely ones where a good deal of the humor comes from the sheer, utter stupidity of the main characters. But in 1994, a comedy was released that was actually marketed around just how painfully dumb the two main characters really were, setting off an equally hilarious tide of negative critical response on just how stupid a movie it was, but with a title like that, why would you even watch it in the first place if that type of humor is just not your cup of tea? Obviously the joke was on them. It was also the third consecutive hit film in a row for the up and coming Jim Carrey, having graduated from supporting roles and the TV sketch comedy show In Living Color (why Fire Marshall Bill never got his own movie is still a mystery to me) into literal superstardom, starting with his insane comedic turns in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask, and then this goofball effort that also saw the breakthrough behind the cameras for writers / directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Carrey was paid what was at the time the enormous sum of $7 million dollars (almost half the budget), gave himself a classic āsoupbowlā haircut, and even had a cap in his front tooth removed to give himself a more overall demented chipped tooth appearance in order to play, in essence, a complete idiot without either the wit and charm of Ventura or the smoothness of The Mask, but ironically he would have the show stolen from him by his own co-star. Jeff Daniels was brought in at Carreyās insistence and only paid a paltry $50,000 to play the other half of the moronic duo, and amazingly this guy best known to most people at the time for his straight laced dramatic roles managed to find a way to completely cut loose acting wise and succeeded in both not only matching Carrey with his own comedic performance, but actually outdoing Carrey himself by finding the more subtle nuances to such a character in order to generate more laughs while Carrey only seemed to be playing it broad across the board. Indeed, the funniest parts of the film are not really the ābig momentsā as seen in the trailers and TV ads but rather those more subtle bits (mostly by Daniels) which show the pair not only to be extremely stupid, but to also have a little bit of an asshole side to them too (example: when a female character says to Daniels, āOh but I donāt want to bore you with my family problemsā, Daniels just callously shrugs and says, āThanks.ā Haha). The plot itself, what there is of it, features Daniels and Carrey as Harry and Lloyd, two idiot losers and lifelong friends who live together in the ghetto wasteland of Providence, Rhode Island(!). When Carrey at his job as a limo driver (which he soon loses) picks up a beautiful, rich young woman named Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly, who married Carrey in real life coming off the set of this film and proceeded to clean him out a few years later much to the detriment of her own career) to take her to the airport, he instantly falls head over heels in love, and not in a good way, displaying outright creepy, stalkerish behavior towards her right from the getgo. After he notices her leaving a briefcase in the airport lobby, he quickly scoops it up and after failing to catch her plane on time, endeavors with Daniels to drive it out to her stated destination (Aspen, CO) to return it to her in person hoping that sheāll accept it as a token of his undying devotion. Problem is, the briefcase was left in the airport ON PURPOSE, as it contained ransom money to save her kidnapped husband and was to be picked up by two freelance criminals (Mike Starr and the very cute onetime MTV veejay Karen Duffy) to be delivered to the mastermind of the kidnapping out in Aspen (SNL reject Charles Rocket, fired from THAT show for infamously uttering the word āfuckā live on air and reducing his own career to B movie character acting rubble for which he was reportedly so tortured over making that mistake that he finally committed suicide in very gruesome fashion in 2005), a respectable friend of the family who as a result also serves as an āinside manā on the job as well. Taking off in a ridiculous looking van designed to look like a sheepdog with the two accomplices in pursuit, Carrey and Daniels travel across the country, having mostly hilarious run ins with a state trooper (Harland Williams) tricked into drinking from a beer bottle filled with piss, a psycho trucker played by Boston Bruins hockey legend Cam Neely (amazing how the one single line āKick his ass, Sea Bass!ā actually managed to develop its own cult following in the years since), and a mysterious, athletic beauty (Victoria Rowell) who seems strangely determined to make a romantic connection of some kind with either of our heroes. Eventually the Starr character finds a way to get picked up in their van with the intention of killing them both and taking back the money, but somehow the duo manage to outwit him by literally annoying him to death! This presents one of the best and funniest dynamics of the film, as the Duffy character literally becomes AFRAID of Carrey and Daniels after they unintentionally dispose of her more than formidable friend (a fear that gets passed on to Rocket) as she hilariously becomes paranoid and convinced that the two of them are āprosā of some kind who seemingly are hired guns and literally know EXACTLY what they are doing. After the road trip for the first half of the film, the two of them arrive in Aspen, and with that, finally discover the large amount of cash in the briefcase, and thatās where the movie kicks into high gear, as the two idiots go on a spending spree of enormous proportions, literally buying their way into a fancy benefit dinner (and encountering 80s female comedy legend Teri Garr doing a tipsy act) and we also see many of the most uproarious and inspired comedy bits as well, although itās interesting to see how Daniels can succeed at being funny both by himself and working with Carrey onscreen (the two do have fabulous chemistry) but Carrey really cannot say the same, making the movie monotonous when heās on his own but acquitting himself well when sharing screen time with his co star. But the second half does prove to actually be funnier than the first half (although the whole movie is funny) and Carrey and Danielās childlike temper tantrums and blatant leanings towards stupidity makes for both a lethal laughter mix and a formidably impressive comedy team which we would not see again until a 20 years too late sequel but even more inanely, a spinoff cartoon series (with different voice actors) and a bizarre āprequelā 10 years after the fact showing them as younger men (but again with different actors in the parts) that ultimately proved that it was the two starring actors (and NOT the actual characters) that made this such a great, classic comedy of its time. And a great, classic comedy it is, with one of the top comedy stars of all time teaming up beautifully with an underrated, respected drama specialist who was able to prove here that his greatest role that he would ever have would be to successfully play stupidā¦
9/10