1994 comedyRating: 9/20
Plot: Harry and Lloyd (Harold Lloyd?) are two idiots who dream of opening up their own pet store. Unfortunately, they can't keep jobs and are having trouble saving up the money. One day, Lloyd drops off a beautiful woman at the airport. When he sees that she forgets her briefcase, he retrieves it. The friends make plans to drive a dog van to Aspen to find the woman and give her back her briefcase. Hot on their (in this case literal) tail are a couple criminals who also want the briefcase. When they get to Aspen, a love triangle develops.
Anne McInslop is the person with whom I have been friends the longest. She likes W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers, and when she was shocked that I had never seen her favorite movie, Dumb and Dumber, I figured it was probably worth checking out. As a result, our friendship is now over. Jim Carrey is very Jim Carrey in this role. He's good at this sort of thing even if I don't think this sort of thing is anything worth being good at. He's made a ton of money doing exactly that sort of thing, so I doubt anything he might read here will hurt his feelings. The comedy is just loudly juvenile and too obvious. Jeff Daniels completely transforms himself here and does a good enough job, but I can tell during a few scenes in this movie that he's regretting the decision to do take this part. You can see it in his eyes. I see those eyes every day when I look in a mirror at school, so I know exactly what regretful eyes look like. I had two good laughs--one during their protagonists' rendition of "Mama's Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird" and another after a line about John Denver. But there were far more moments that gave me good groans. I'm not attempting to think of this in the context of the mid-90's. Maybe diarrhea was original and funny fifteen years ago. To make matters worse, this movie also has a real pet peeve of mine--Harland Williams. I don't know what it is about him (it might be the sideburns), but whenever I see him, I want to punch the screen. A good friend, it seems, would know that. You hear that, Anne McInslop? A good friend would know that!
4 comments:
I hope this doesn't ruin our incredibly close friendship, but I am compelled to say that I like this movie. Of course it is juvenile. Of course it is tastless and tacky. These guys are idiots, but since they are so naive and stupid, I think they are kind of endearing. Speaking of endearing, I think you are dead wrong about Daniels. When he was doing the diarrhea scene I think he was thinking that this role was the perfect follow-up to "Terms of Endearment". As he was sitting on the pot he was happily thinking "typecast my ass".
Humor is subjective and I laughed so hard at a few points in this films that things would have flown out of my nose if I had actually been eating anything. When Carrey thinks that the bird's head has fallen off on its own I thought comedy has reached its hightest point. This film is goofy and tasteless, but it is harmless fun with a tight linnear construction. Their friendship is sweet and Holley is nice to look at (before I was married, of course... now I think she is butt-ugly). A 15.
Oh yeah! I did like the part with the parrot, especially when the kid with the "repaired" parrot was seen again on the 'Extra' t.v. show.
Watch Daniels' eyes...
This movie is funny. Its not my favorite Farrelly brothers movie, and certainly a lot of the jokes dont hit my particular funny bone, but it really is relentless in its eagerness to just make you laugh.
I would give it a 14 or so. Its no Kingpin, but its a harmless little diversion with a lo0t of laughs.
I suppose it's harmless. At least it's not mean-spirited like a lot of its comedic cousins...
I do like 'Kingpin'...I've never seen 'There's Something about Mary' which I guess a lot of people say is their best.
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