Movie review: Dumb and Dumber

digresssmlOriginally published February 17, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1109

I go to movies for any number of reasons—indeed, probably for the same reasons that you go.

Because it’s got someone in it I like.

Because the director or (in very rare instances) the writer is someone whose work I enjoy.

Because the subject matter is of interest.

Because the trailer looked good. (Here’s a general rule of thumb: If the trailer’s entertaining, you have a 50/50 shot at a good film. If the trailer’s lousy, you have almost zero chance of a worthwhile movie.)

Because it got good word of mouth.

Because someone I know is in it.

Because it’s there.

Because the kids wanted to see it.

Up until recently, that was pretty much all of them. But now I’ve got a brand new reason.

Social observation. Going to a film in order to watch, not the movie, but the audience reaction.

And it was because of the latter two reasons that I actually found myself at a local box office saying five words that I never thought I’d hear myself say:

“Two for Dumb and Dumber.”

We were three, actually. There was my 10-year-old, Jenny. And my 3-year-old, Ariel.

Ariel is something of a film veteran. She has little patience for Sesame Street and its quick-cut techniques, but she’ll watch entire films, over and over. She’ll anticipate plot points and discuss the movie afterwards. Nor is she easily thrown for a loop. One time Jenny was at home, sick, and wanted to go downstairs and watch our copy of Jurassic Park. Ariel, in a nice bit of irony, was upstairs watching Barney.

I was busy doing some work around the house, and it was only some time later that I noticed Ariel was missing. I went downstairs to discover that Jenny had fallen asleep, but there was three-year-old Ariel watching Jurassic Park. Her eyes were like saucers. She had just watched the entire T-Rex attack, complete with screaming children and chomped lawyers.

“Ariel?” I said nervously. “Are you scared?”

And she looked at me, cool as you please, and said, “No, I’m not scared. It’s just a movie.”

Not easily rattled, as I said.

I admit that I was fascinated by the success of Dumb and Dumber. This was a film that, as I mentioned some months back, I saw the trailer for and came to the immediate conclusion—based on audience reaction—that the film’s very existence was an indicator of the downward spiral of American intelligence. A film that would have to improve 200 percent just to aspire to lowest common denominator.

Now, of course, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence or taste of the American people. But even that generalization of what H.L. Mencken said did not prepare me for the box office bonanza this film struck. Not only that, but Hollywood—ever imitative—is busy working on films that will make Dumb and Dumber look like Citizen Kane (just as Dumb and Dumber itself makes one genuinely nostalgic for the relatively Mensa-level adventures of Wayne’s World.)

Dumb and Dumber is, therefore, not merely a stupid film. It’s the progenitor of an entire stupid phenomenon and, therefore, should be watched so that—if for no other reason—anyone with a functioning brain in their head can view the enemy first-hand.

And Jenny really wanted to see it.

The theater, as I expected, was packed. Ariel, Jenny and I found seats about midway.

There were two trailers. They were both for films based on video games. Why was I not surprised?

In case anyone hasn’t heard, the film stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as (correspondingly, I believe) the resident dumbbells of the title, Harry and Lloyd. (Whether this was supposed to be a tribute to master physical-comedy movie star Harold Lloyd, I have no idea. I wouldn’t bet on it.)

The nominal plot involves them driving cross-country to return a missing briefcase to its rightful owner. Along the way, equally nominal humor is garnered from virtually every bodily function and secretion that human beings are capable of producing. There’s no point in describing any of the sequences: Those who would find it funny would argue that it’s all in the execution; those who wouldn’t find it funny would just say, “That’s disgusting.”

Indeed, the few things I found amusing did not remotely dovetail with the audience mind. At one point, Carrey’s character states that he hopes to impress the newfound love of his life with a display of his “dazzling rapist wit.” Exactly one person in the place laughed: me. A woman seated nearby turned and speared me with one of the dirtiest looks I’ve ever received. Part of me wanted to lean over to this angry person and explain, “It’s a malapropism. He meant to say ‘rapier wit.'” Then I remembered that, earlier, the same woman had been convulsed with hilarity during a sequence involving prolonged urination, howling and shouting at the top of her lungs, “He’s peeing into beer bottles! This is so funny!

Indeed, that was one of the most intriguing aspects of the audience reaction. People around me felt the need, every so often, to shout out, “This is funny! This is great! This is hilarious!”

Even Ariel piped up every so often, although she at least had the intelligence to observe instead, “That’s disgusting! That’s gross!” In other words, someone who mere months ago was perfectly sanguine about walking around with a loaded diaper had developed sufficient discrimination to be appalled by what these guys were up to.

If I were more cynical than I am, I’d suspect that the audience’s vocal protestations of mirth was the audience trying to convince itself. But I think the feeling was genuine. They were sharing in a commonality of experience at watching the adventures of two characters who could not even be called half-wits, because the implication would be that, combined, they have an entire brain between them. Such was not the case.

What is it with these guys? These are two morons who, if they were standing in line in front of you at the post office, would drive you to such distraction that you’d be rooting for a disgruntled postal worker to blow them away.

I thought of earlier screen clowns, but no immediate parallel—particularly comparable in terms of box office success—comes to mind. Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp,” for instance, was certainly slapstick enough—but he was the little guy, defying authority and often outwitting them. Not only are Carrey and Daniel’s characters clueless (except for the occasional prank, so rare it seems almost out of character), they’d probably think the word “ingenuity” refers to engines.

Or consider comedy teams. Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis. The difference is that somebody was the straight man. One of the two had some degree of intelligence (although not enough apparently to keep clear of the imbecilic friend who made life miserable.) But “Harry” and “Lloyd” are both simpletons. How can one root for cretins?

Then again, how can superheroes with no redeeming values be popular? How can comic books with no coherent storyline, no likeable characters, no wit or intelligence—how can these be considered entertainment?

At the same time, I will get angry missives from fans (not all, mind you, but some) if I do a story like, say, Incredible Hulk #420 focusing on AIDS. Invariably the sentiments will be, “I don’t want stuff like this in my comics! I don’t want anything relevant or thought-provoking! I just want to be entertained!”

In other words, to be amused or diverted, as at a circus. Which would mean that a film like Dumb and Dumber would be the equivalent of going to a 90-minute circus that was just clowns. No acrobats, no jugglers, no wild animal acts. Not even one of those guys who spins plates. Just clowns. What’s the point of that? If I want to spend an hour and a half watching clowns, I’ll put on C-SPAN.

Once upon a time, America was a celebration of initiative. Now we celebrate ignorance. We are drawn to that which requires the minimal effort, the least possible expenditure of brain power. You might think that it’s because we, as a country, are saving it all up, in preparation for some sort of vast national epiphany.

Nah. We’re just lazy. It’s reflected in what we watch. It’s reflected in how we vote. It’s reflected in our collective short-term memory. It’s reflected in how we inform ourselves. It’s reflected in how we spend our money.

Thirty years ago, America was worried about Why Johnny Can’t Read.

We’ve gone way beyond that. We’ve moved into an era wherein Johnny can’t even form a coherent sentence.

And you know what? It might be that we’re embarrassed about it. Deep down, there is a vast national chagrin over how much we’re backsliding. It used to be that we embraced heroes or sought entertainment figures who challenged us, or made us think, or made us aspire to more than we are. A time when the space program fired our imaginations, and there was a deep burning in our national gut to—as JFK said—ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country.

Not anymore. With the fire in our bellies all but extinguished, we ask but one thing and one thing only: “Where’s mine? If I’ve got mine, keep the hëll out of my way. If I haven’t got mine, then I want the government to give it to me, and once it has, then keep the hëll out of my way.”

It’s a shameful, single-minded, petty little way to think.

And because, in our heart of hearts, we feel guilty over our ignorance and selfishness, we seek out people who are worse than us. More dissolute. More stupid. More incompetent. Whether they’re Harry and Lloyd, or Beavis and Bûŧŧ-Hëád, or any steroid pumped amoral comics hero you choose. Doesn’t matter; they serve the same purpose.

They serve to make us feel superior. Since we don’t aspire, then we’ll detract. We want to be entertained by people to whom we can condescend. But because our own aspirations, our own intelligence, initiative, imagination has dribbled away, bit by bit, we need to work that much harder to find comedic figures to whom we can feel superior.

So we embrace fools. It’s not like films such as the brilliant Being There or even the impressive, albeit cloying, Forrest Gump, wherein simpletons possess a naïve wisdom, or hold a mirror up to our own follies.

This is just, “Hey! Look at the morons! Boy, I’m so superior! I’m glad I’m not that stupid!”

Oh yeah? To quote that great sage, Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Who is the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?”

Naturally, I should make clear that the above comments don’t apply to everyone. What I’d like to say is, “You know who you are.” Then again, the sad part is… you might very well not.

(Peter David, writer of stuff, was pleased about one thing: Usually when Ariel sees a movie, she talks about it for days afterwards. In this case, she didn’t discuss it at all. It’s as if none of it made the slightest impression on her; she’s forgotten it already. Whew. That was close.)

 

 

40 comments on “Movie review: Dumb and Dumber

  1. I have to confess, i only saw Being There because my sister helped build the set for the funeral scene and it sounded interesting when i looked it up after she mentioned it. (Likewise, i only saw A Wedding because the bride was played by the girl who sat two rows over in English class for two years in high school.)
    .
    That being said, your mention of it caused me to wonder what an audience that would applaud Dumb and Dumber (and make it so successful that Dumb and Dumberer was possible) would make of it…
    .
    (BTW – i’m not seeing ComicMix in the side panel. Is it truly gone, or is it just my browser being cranky?)

    1. It’s worth noting that Carrey – never known for being afflicted with an excess of good taste – did not participate in the sequel.
      .
      Perhaps he just wanted too much money…

      1. .
        Well, that and they would have had to de-age him quite a bit. Wasn’t that one about when they were kids or something?

      2. carrey, at the time they were going to do this sequel, wanted no part of it. he was still trying to be the next Tom hanks and be taken seriously as an actor.
        .
        Heck, I remember him saying he was in “sequel hëll” back when he was white hot and the studios wanted to do sequels to “The Mask” and “Dumb and Dumber” and another “Ace Ventura”.
        .
        However the one sequel to “Ace Ventura” was all he wound up doing. he sooo wanted to not be typecast and be playing these roles forever.
        .
        he envisioned himself as an Oscar winner someday and was looking to do more serious fare, like “Man on the Moon”. And before everyone laughs, if someone told you the actor behind “Bosom Buddies” and “Bachelor party” would be a multiple Oscar winner back in, say, 1985, people would have told you you were out of your mind.

      3. .
        Oh, he very publicly wanted to do that and establish himself as a serious actor on top of a goofy comedic actor as far back his In Living Color days. He promoted the hëll out of his part on a Fox Network movie of the week where he played a serious role as an alcoholic brother to the lead actor’s character. Barely anyone I knew at the time that raved about Carrey saw it and those that did said they turned of off about 30 minutes in because it wasn’t the type of part that Carrey “should be doing” in a film or TV role.
        .
        “And before everyone laughs, if someone told you the actor behind “Bosom Buddies” and “Bachelor party” would be a multiple Oscar winner back in, say, 1985, people would have told you you were out of your mind.”
        .
        I’ll do you one better that I still chuckle at thinking about the fan reactions before and after some of these roles.
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        “See that guy over there?”
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        “Yeah.”
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        “one day he is going to be knocking them dead with his dead serious portrayals of alcoholics, killers and iconic superheroes.”
        .
        “What? Mr. F’n Mom? Get off the drugs, pothead.

    2. There was some sort of technical problem with the widget. It was causing my site to generate error messages. So Glenn took it down to figure out what was causing that to happen.
      .
      PAD

  2. .
    One of a number of movies from that era that I couldn’t get into. I need at least a little bit more in my humor than just it being gross and the characters being morons. Maybe not much more, but I still need more than that.
    .
    Never been able to get into Jáçkášš and its clones either.
    .
    I noticed the ComicMix window missing as well. Rather glad it’s gone right now. I love ComicMix, but the window was seriously bogging down my browser last week. I assume it’s gone away until they fix whatever was causing the script to run so slowly?

    1. As I mentioned above, that’s exactly right. The widget developed some weird hiccup that was interfering with web browsers. It’ll be back up once Glenn has it sorted out.
      .
      PAD

  3. Wait, you mean this isn’t another political thread about the Republicans and Democrats?
    .
    The C-SPAN line was a good one. 🙂

  4. So just out of curiousity, when did your second child change the shortening of her name from Jenny to Gwen?

  5. “Whether this was supposed to be a tribute to master physical-comedy movie star Harold Lloyd, I have no idea. I wouldn’t bet on it.”
    .
    Actually, it is.
    .
    “Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis. The difference is that somebody was the straight man.”
    .
    Except Lewis didn’t always have Martin around. I’d say his movies are the direct antecedent of movies like Dumb & Dumber (which really isn’t a bad movie, especially compared to some of the dreck nowadays).

  6. Great article…but I have to contest the assertion that a lousy trailer automatically equals a lousy film…many of my favourite films had terrible trailers…Serenity and Social Network being but two of recent years.

    1. Half way through. I couldn’t get 10 minutes into it before hitting eject.

      1. that should be “Half way through?!? I couldn’t get 10 minutes into it before hitting eject.

  7. One time in Budapest I sought refuge from an impending storm by ducking into a movie theater. I paid approximately 35 cents to see “Ace Ventura.” It wasn’t worth the money.

    1. .
      Ace Venture: When Nature Calls.
      .
      “Hi, this is Nature. I want my ticket price refunded for that god-awful movie.”

  8. I also saw Dumb and Dumber. But only because I was writing a movie review column at the time. I probably gave it a D or an F. Can’t see myself having given it a higher grade.
    .
    Interesting that you should reference the Obi Wan Kenobi quote. I used it in my review of Forrest Gump. With regard to the people jogging with Forrest in hopes of learning some “great wisdom” from him.
    .
    Neither Carrey nor Daniels were in the sequel to Dumb and Dumber, according to IMDb. No idea why. Maybe because it was a prequel. Or maybe they weren’t satisfied with the way the first film turned out. Maybe they went into it expecting it to be something different, and then came the script revisions.
    .
    You’ve mentioned going to see the 1996 modern-day Romeo and Juliette and overhearing some kids or teens saying something to the effect that Juliette would wake up just in time. Were you again observing the audience when seeing that film (to see how kids would react, perhaps), or were you just seeing the film, and were surprised by what you overheard?
    .
    Your comment about Ariel’s blase reaction to Jurassic Park reminds me of my then-younger than 6-year-old cousin’s reaction to scary masks one Halloween. Concerns that she’d find them too scary proved unfounded.
    .
    Rick
    .
    P.S. Don’t know about the rest of you, but around here, this morning it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

    1. .
      “P.S. Don’t know about the rest of you, but around here, this morning it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”
      .
      Your floor was covered with Godzilla toys, Ultraman figures, Disney/Pixar Cars and a small ton of castle set Duplo blocks?
      .
      Hope you had fun.

      1. Jerry,
        .
        Actually, I meant the snow. But Santa can’t be far behind, right?
        .
        Right?
        .
        Right?
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        Rats.
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        Rick
        .
        P.S. You may or may not have seen this in another thread, but since I know you have some degree of interest in old-time radio, I’ll reiterate that the Cincinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia convention is the weekend of May 13, if you’re interested and able to attend. I wrote about it here:
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        http://www.michronicleonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1189:random-musings-03-29-11&catid=36:random-musings&Itemid=88

      2. .
        Ðámņ. It looks really cool. Bad thing for me; I don’t have any more weekends off in between now and the first weekend in June.

      3. Jerry,
        .
        (I assume this will appear below your second reply)
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        What does not having weekends off have to do with anything? Just tell the chief you got a hot lead on that vile miscreant who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, and you’re tracking him to Cincinnati.
        .
        Speaking of radio shows, my original radio play “The Widow’s Revenge” was performed by All Ears Theatre in Kalamazoo last month, and will be broadcast on Western Michigan’s radio station, WMUK on May 29.
        .
        Anyway, the convention’s an annual affair. Maybe you’ll be able to make it next year.
        .
        Rick

  9. Dumb and Dumber was awesome and one of my favorite all time movies , simply because it is straight out stupid and nothing more. There are times when I watch a movie just to entertained and not being taught any sort of lessons about life or anything else. I just want to be entertained period and this movie does exactly that. Ever since the Three Stooges, I have always enjoyed stupid humor because it makes me laugh everytime out. With all of the crap that is going on these days ( high gas prices , bickering politicians , budget deficits, etc.) , we all need a good laugh here and there and laughter is the best medicine for that.

  10. bored to tears with what I’ve seen of D&D…I haven’t watched the whole thing but what I did see wasn’t my thing.
    .
    On the other hand, I love The 3 Stooges…go figure. maybe it’s an appreciation for the craftsmanship in the Stooge shorts.

    1. Bingo.
      .
      I think you’ve hit it.
      .
      The Stooges shorts were made in a time when even low-brow trash was made by skilled people who (even if they didn’t take pride in the end product) worked in a highly-professional manner. (If only because they were on a treadmill schedule and couldn’t afford for anything to go so seriously wrong that it interfered with production.)
      .
      Films like Dumb and Dumber are structurally and production-wide slapdash, jury-rigged junk.
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      “Kick him in the nuts twice and pour piss on his head and they’ll laugh. Even if it isn’t really funny, they’ll laugh, because everyone else is. And everyone else is laughing because they know they’re supposed to.”
      .
      Oh, for the days of the studio system when even the junk looked as if someone actually cared about it.
      .
      (And that includes a fair bit of the “Poverty Row” stuff – they might not have had much money or any big-name cast, but sometimes they turned out amazing stuff.
      .
      (Monogram serials, for all their hokey stories & dialog and stiff acting and stock footage, were still more fun than a huge percentage of the slick stuff we see on TV nowadays…)

    2. I was surprised there was no mention of The Stooges in this review. It can certainly be argued that The Stooges were better than Dumber & Dumber, but they are part of the same tradition. I don’t think Dumb & Dumber really heralded the start of new disturbing trend. This stuff has always been around.
      .
      PAD, have you ever reviewed Idiocracy? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that.

      1. In a away he did–the Stooges could be included in the category of “simpletons possess a naïve wisdom, or hold a mirror up to our own follies”.
        .
        The Stooges were funny and they got the laughs with routines that are painfully UNFUNNY when tried by others. It’s like the classic Bugs Bunny routine where he does a 7 step dance and gets applause and Daffy does an elaborate acrobatic spectacle and gets crickets. Some folks have it, some don’t.
        .
        Making stupidity funny and not annoying is a tricky thing. D&D doesn’t do it for me. Then again, Beavis and Bûŧŧhëád often hot the mark, I thought. I guess it’s subjective.

      2. .
        Well, I think that the other thing with “stupid” humor is that you can’t drag it out too long. The stooges shorts were just that; they were shorts. They didn’t have a long run time. When the Stooges did do things (like movies) with long run times, they followed the more standard movie format and only threw in the familiar routines here and there.
        .
        I like the Stooges, but I don’t know that I could take a full movie of nothing but Stooge routines before I start to nod off. Add in the fact that most of the humor of Dumb & Dumber is just “how gross can we be” type of stuff and I really have no interest in an hour and a half of it.

  11. I remember first reading this review when it was published in CBG and wondering if Peter was using a bit of narrative license in relating his experience at the movie. Did a woman really give you a dirty look for laughing at the “rapier/rapist” joke? Had you really paying close enough attention to her to notice she had earlier been laughing at the urination joke?

    1. She was sitting one, maybe two rows ahead of me and a seat or so to the left, and there was no one between us. As for paying attention to her, trust me, she was impossible to miss. Remember, I was more interested in audience reactions than I was in the film itself, so that’s where my attentions were.
      .
      PAD

  12. Man, you really only got one laugh out of it? Yes, the drinking pee beer and the ex-lax jokes are lame, but the film is full of awesome one-liners throughout. Even the bit with the Bikini Girls “looking for two oil boys who can grease us up before each competition”? C’mon, that’s total gold!

    1. I remember laughing twice:
      .
      1. When the girl throws a snowball at Jeff Daniels’ character and in retaliation he throws one back at her so hard he knocks her on the floor.
      .
      2. When Jim’s character is racing the girl up the stairs and makes her trip flat on her face so he can win.
      .
      And no, I do not have a thing for woman falling down. I usually do not laugh at physical comedy but back then those two moments were so unexpected to me that I could not help but laugh.

  13. My dad took my mom to see this; he said the movie won my mom over in the scene where Harry tells Lloyd that they’re nearly broke, so he should only buy the essentials, so Lloyd buys a giant foam cowboy hat and a pinwheel.

    I remember liking the movie, but I also remember the reaction when Mary tells Lloyd there’s a “one in a million” chance they’ll ever be together. There were sympathetic “Aww!”s in my theater, and I was stunned that people didn’t realize the film was just setting up another “Lloyd doesn’t get it” joke.

    1. “I remember liking the movie, but I also remember the reaction when Mary tells Lloyd there’s a “one in a million” chance they’ll ever be together. There were sympathetic “Aww!”s in my theater, and I was stunned that people didn’t realize the film was just setting up another “Lloyd doesn’t get it” joke.”
      .
      This is one of my favorite parts. Lloyd looks sad for a brief second and then says, “So what you’re saying is…there’s a chance!”

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