Dumb and Dumber To (Blu-ray Review)

13 Feb, 2015 By: John Latchem

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Street 2/17/15
Universal
Comedy
Box office $86.20 million
$29.98 DVD, $34.98 Blu-ray
Rated ‘PG-13’ for crude and sexual humor, partial nudity, language and some drug references.
Stars Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Laurie Holden, Kathleen Turner, Steve Tom, Rachel Melvin, Rob Riggle.

It took 20 years for the Farrelly brothers to deliver a second “Dumb and Dumber” movie (well, technically third if one considers the 2003 prequel Dumb and Dumberer, which this movie certainly didn’t), and things pick up as if those two decades didn’t even happen.

Actually, that’s the first gag of the movie, as Jeff Daniels’ Harry visits Jim Carrey’s Lloyd at a mental hospital, where the latter has been faking a catatonic state after losing out on the girl at the end of the first film.

It’s an elaborate prank by Lloyd, of course, and when they return to their small apartment we see that Billy, the kid with the “pretty bird,” is still there, albeit all grown up.

The only other nod to the passage of time involves Harry picking up some old mail to learn he might have a 22-year-old daughter. This is fortunate news, since Harry says he needs a kidney transplant and she would be a perfect donor.

So they set off to meet the girl, only to discover she was put up for adoption, setting up another epic road trip for the duo, just like in the first film, giving them all sorts of opportunities to unknowingly act like the morons they are to the astonishment of everyone around them.

And so it goes, with a touch of the familiar and a lot of silliness that does just enough to satisfy fans of the first film. Granted, there weren’t a lot of expectations for this one to begin with, but Carrey and Daniels find the right balance between annoying and appealing, and the film offers more than its fair share of genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

New to the fold are Kathleen Turner as Harry’s old squeeze, Laurie Holden of “The Walking Dead” as a schemer whose plan is interrupted by Harry and Lloyd, and the ubiquitous Rob Riggle as another heavy who fits right in to all the antics.

Be sure to watch to the end of the credits for the reappearance of a fan-favorite character and a hint of what’s to come.

The Blu-ray offers about 13 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, including an alternate opening that looks a lot like the opening scene that’s in the film except for one extra gag. One of the deleted scenes is the noted cameo by Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

There’s also an amusing seven-minute gag reel that showcases how well the stars fell back into their old routine, though Daniels isn’t shy about reminding everyone how he recently won an Emmy for “The Newsroom.”

Finally, the Blu-ray includes a 44-minute making-of documentary and a shorter featurette about the film’s penchant for low-brow humor, both of which trade heavily on nostalgia for the first film, even to the point of including interviews with fans.
 

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