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Dumb and Dumber To: Meh, nothing to see here

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dumb-and-dumber-toTo say that I was looking forward to Dumb and Dumber To would be to understate things greatly. I ended up rearranging my schedule for the week to make sure that I got to see the movie the first weekend.

I absolutely loved the first incarnation of the story of Harry and Lloyd, dimwits who went on a cross-country trek to return a briefcase full of money and end up intervening in a plot by a group of bad guys.

Yes, the plot was lacking, big time, but the gags were solid, the writing was smart, and you left the theater with plenty of takeaway lines that live to this day (“Just when I didn’t think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this … and totally redeem yourself.”)

So I went to the early Thursday show at the local theater expecting to see the same pair of dimwits go on a cross-country trek, end up inadvertently intervening in a plot by a bunch of bad guys, be entertained by a few solid gags, and leave with a takeaway line or two.

I actually thought about leaving about halfway through.

The jokes, such as they were, fell flat. The opening scene, involving a gag in which Lloyd (Jim Carrey) comes out of a 20-year catatonic state to inform his best buddy Harry (Jeff Daniels) that it was all a prank, was given away in the trailer, and is pretty much the highlight of the movie.

Yes, that’s about it, as far as the good stuff, and you saw it for free in the TV commercials.

It was almost as if the Farrelly Brothers weren’t trying. This one felt like outtakes from the first movie, which was released in 1994, the stuff left on the cutting-room floor for a reason, because it wasn’t meant to see the light of day.

I wanted to laugh, desperately, if only because I’d dragged my wife to the theater with me, and she really, really didn’t want to be there for Dumb and Dumber To, and I wanted her to appreciate the art of writing dumb comedy, and how smart one has to be to write really good, really dumb comedy.

When the best scene after the open that we got for free in the TV commercials is the second in a long series of fart gags in the back seat of a Hearse, yeah, no, that’s not the art of writing at work.

I really can’t imagine anyone who was a fan of the first Dumb and Dumber getting any enjoyment out of the sequel, if only because we’re all 20 years older now, and aged out of snickers and giggles over bodily functions about …. 20 years ago, give or take.

Wait for this one to come out on NetFlix, then don’t watch it then, either.

Sorry. I really, really wanted to like this, but I can’t in good conscience say that I did.

The popcorn, though, was good and buttery. So there was something redeeming about my night at the movies.

– Column by Chris Graham

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