In the 90s, Jim Carrey was a big name, having appeared in a number of films such as Ace Ventura, The Mask, Batman Forever and Liar Liar. Before getting further recognition in the 2000s with films like The Truman Show, Bruce Almighty, The Grinch and the film adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. So the film that helped solidify his career is probably the one you would least likely think would do as such and that film was Dumb and Dumber. A film about two grown men with little to no intelligence and cause mayhem. It became a cult hit which led to it having a prequel and a sequel. So let's have a look at them:
Dumb and Dumber
So we meet two uninteligent men. One called Lloyd (played by Carrey) and the other called Harry (played by Jeff Daniels). In his job as a limo driver, Harry instantly falls in love with a woman he's driving to the airport (played by Lauren Holly), but when she misplaces her briefcase, Harry attempts to return it to her, but to no avail. Both being fired from their jobs and people hot on their tail for the briefcase, the duo set out to find this lady and give her the briefcase back, going through all sorts of trouble, goofiness and hilarity that has this film live up to its name. I think that while this film does have some flaws here and there, I can certainly see why this film gained its cult following and how it was able to solidify Carrey's career as well as giving a boost in Jeff's career too. Its funny, weird, full of hilarious moments and its an overall good film that shows that even the dumbest of people can do some good, but in some very questionable ways. 8/10
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
So after the first film, it got itself an animated series which was short lived, but was good nonetheless. This was then followed by this mostly non-canonical prequel with a whole new cast and crew. This one to sum up in a nutshell is mostly how the duo (this time played by Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen) became friends at school and how they managed to wind up in a "special needs" class all to do with getting money for the corrupt principal for some silly thing. Often when I see a film that is part of a franchise or film series where the cast and crew are all different from before, it kind of makes for a bad film and is mostly seen as nothing more than a cash grab for everyone involved. And because of all that, this film in my opinion, just plain sucks. Its not remotely funny especially as it mocks and insults the special needs community and its just not as good as the original. Of course this is a common thing with Jim Carrey in that he never really wants to do further films in a film series where he starred in the original film and it makes every film that came after it, suck. Nothing else to say here. 4/10
To
However, he has made some exceptions which was the case with the Ace Ventura films and in this franchise too. Taking place 20 years after the first film, Lloyd (reprised by Carrey) has been committed at a mental institution following a doomed romance from the first film. Harry (reprised by Daniels) pays him a visit to find that he had been pranked all this time. The two laugh and go about catching up and so forth. But when Harry reveals that he needs a kidney transplant, the duo set out to find a blood relative which sees them hunting down Harry's biological daughter (or we are led to believe anyway) and a number of people from their past. While it does well to pay tribute to the first film by throwing in some callbacks and Easter eggs like the doggy car as well as being more modern to current times, the film like most sequels tend to be like, isn't very good. It has its moments and is certainly better than the prequel, but sometimes even the return of the original lead actors and crew isn't enough to make a good film. But hey at least not all of the films are bad (unlike certain franchises). 6/10
So while its not a perfect set of films, they do well to show how the dumbest of people can do some good in very unusual ways. Obviously in this case the original is going to be the best of the bunch, but if there was any film that helped establish both Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as great actors, it would have to be Dumb and Dumber as funny and obviously dumb as it is. 7/10
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