Dumb and Dumber To (4/10): The Farrelly brothers unsuccessful attempt of recreating their success after 20 years

“There he is again. Almost two decades and he still comes.”

It’s been 20 years since the Farrelly brothers directed the cult hit comedy Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. I was a huge fan of the original film, as well as pretty much every comedy Jim Carrey starred in the 90’s. I don’t know if my sense of humor has changed, but this sequel didn’t work for me at all despite having a very similar structure and familiar gags. I’ve actually not been a fan of the Farrelly’s recent work either, but I still had high hopes for this sequel because I knew the chemistry between Carrey and Daniels couldn’t go wrong. I guess I was wrong because despite some very funny moments the film never worked for me and I found most of the jokes repetitive and at times offensive. I know the original film didn’t have a memorable plot, but it still worked thanks to the original crude jokes and a fantastic chemistry from the two leads. This time the formula is repeated, but without that unique quality and with only flashes of what once was a great pairing of two talented actors. There are still some funny moments scattered throughout its 110 minute run time, but it never lives up to the high standards set by the original. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are really committed to the material once again delivering hyperactive physical comedy, but unfortunately it is a bit outdated. There are much more misses than hits in this highly anticipated sequel and most of the hits are induced by the nostalgia from the original. In short, Dumb and Dumber To lacks its freshness.

I’m really having a hard time finding things to say about this uninspired comedy because there really wasn’t much thought put into it. There are some great scenes and funny moments with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. I’d be lying if I told you I was silent throughout the entire film because I did laugh several times. Carrey and Daniels are great together, but I didn’t really find the material interesting this time. There are also some great cameos (one I really didn’t recognize until I read the spoiler section in the IMDB page). I still don’t understand how they got Kathleen Turner to star in this film, but she did have some funny scenes. I didn’t really find Rachel Melvin all that funny in this film, but a lot of the blame can be given to the poor script (which is credited between six people including the Farrelly brothers themselves).The sequel also refers to the original in several occasions which actually hurt the film because we are constantly comparing it to the way the original made us feel. Dumb and Dumber To feels like a lazy comedy with many recycled gags which is why I found the pacing sort of torturous as it approached the two hour mark.   

My Review: Kick Ass 2 (5/10)

"I try to have fun. Otherwise, what's the point?"

Let me begin by stating that I was a huge fan of the first film which ended up being one of my top ten movies of 2010. It was very entertaining and introduced me to Chloe Grace Moretz whom I absolutely love. My high expectations for this sequel were tampered down a bit due to the bad critical reception it received, but I still thought I was going to like it based on how much I loved these characters. However despite being entertained during several moments, I still felt this sequel was a huge disappointment due to the fact that it had serious issues with the overall tone of the film. It never quite captures the spirit of the first film which did manage to balance the ultra violent action scenes with funny moments. Here the sequel suffers from a lower quality script which never manages to be as witty as the first film. There were several scenes that felt forced and didn't work. One of the key differences with the first film is that director Matthew Vaughn turned in this sequel to Jeff Wadlow who doesn't have as much experience and isn't as good as a writer as Vaughn. Having got that out of the way, I still have to admit I had a fun time with Moretz's character and enjoyed her scenes as Hit Girl. She makes this film tolerable, despite the fact that they almost messed everything up when they tried to focus on her character's adaptation to High School. That was the weakest part of the film as Moretz was playing way out of character here and this felt like a bad version of Mean Girls at times. The jokes were predictable and forced in that scenario. When the film focused more on the action I thought the story improved a little, but there are too many weak moments in Kick Ass 2 for me to give it a passing grade. The film isn't for everyone, and unless you absolutely enjoyed the first one like I did, than I wouldn't recommend you this sequel. 

This sequel continues to follow Dave (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as he has inspired several other ordinary people to become superheroes. Dave has been feeling a bit lonely and decides to ask Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz) to team up with him as they continue defending the city. Mindy is reluctant at first, but she decides to team up with Kick-Ass and begins to train him. After an incident, Mindy who is now in the care of her foster parent, Detective Marcus (Morris Chestnut), is forced to abandon her vigilante dreams and try to live an ordinary life. She promises Marcus that she will stay away from the vigilante life and try to adapt to her normal life as a High School student. Being on his own once again, Dave decides to join forces with several of the superheroes he has inspired. Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), a former gangster and now a born again Christian, has been leading a patrol group of masked crusaders known as Justice Forever, and they are glad to have Kick Ass join them. As things begin to go smoothly for these superheroes, a new villain shows up claiming to want to kill Kick-Ass. The villain is none other than Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who wants to avenge his father's death. He has assembled a group of villains to destroy the city and begin terrorizing the members of Justice Forever. A final face off between them seems inevitable, and not all will survive.

Other than Chloe Grace Moretz's character the rest seem to be underdeveloped. She is the only one carrying most of the film on her shoulders, but when the writers decide to strip her off of her uniform the film falls flat. It's those shifts of tonality that the film takes at times that end up burying this otherwise entertaining flick. The secondary characters don't do much here either, with the exception of Jim Carrey's Colonel Stars who gives a solid performance. He doesn't get enough screen time, but he stands out in the few scenes he's in. Nicolas Cage is really missed here as his performance in the first film was perhaps his last greatest one. He hasn't done much since. The film could have used a little more of Hit Girl and less of Mindy, but I agree with the fact that having a 15 year old vigilante isn't as shocking as it was when she was younger during the first film. I still enjoyed her performance and think she has a great future ahead of her (I loved her in Let the Right One In and Hugo as well). However I did find most of the villains really obnoxious here. They were another weak part of this sequel. Neither Christopher Mintz-Plasse nor Olga Kurkulina brought anything to the table and their characters were dumbed down. The film never quite finds its identity and at times it sends mixed and opposite messages about violence and society. 

My Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (4/10)

¨Prepare to get your brain raped.¨

Director Don Scardino got to work with Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, and Steve Buscemi in his latest comedy. He also signed James Gandolfini and Alan Arkin for secondary roles. It doesn’t get any better than that comedy wise, but somehow the film failed to deliver big laughs and it settled for a formulaic genre instead. It has to be more difficult to do a bad movie than a good one considering the great cast Scardino had to work with, but the direction and the script failed completely so the film managed to do the impossible: turn funny actors into mediocre ones. This year has been pretty bad for comedies so far, and I had expectations for this film but it completely derails from the very beginning considering how unlikeable Steve Carell´s character is. This movie can be used in film classes everywhere to show the students how they can make a bad film with great actors. Jim Carrey is the only actor that really stands out in this film and it made you wish the film centered on his character which was a clever satiric portrayal of street magician Criss Angel. Other than that, the film lacks laughs and heart, and by the time the credits begin to role you are happy it got over with. The four writers involved in the screenplay couldn’t come up with a decent story and the jokes fell flat. It is a shame, because they had a stellar cast to work with and didn’t take advantage of them. Even the beautiful Olivia Wilde was underused and her character had nothing to offer.

Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and his best friend, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have been doing magic tricks together since they were kids. A wealthy Las Vegas Casino owner, Doug Munny (James Gandolfini), falls in love with their show and offers them a huge contract to perform at his casino. As the years go by, Burt and Anton become famous, but somehow fame and wealth have taken a toll on their friendship. Burt doesn’t care anymore about magic, and all he seems to be thinking of is getting the show over with and getting one of the girls from the audience to his bed. The only thing that has grown over time has been his personal ego. In the meantime, a street magician named Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) has begun to take the world by storm with his dangerous and bloody tricks. People have grown tired of Burt and Anton´s show which has remained the same for years, and Doug decides to end their contract with him. Burt and Anton each go their separate ways, and their fame soon fades away. Bankrupt, Burt decides to live at a retirement home, where he meets former magician Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin), who was his childhood idol. Rance reminds Burt about the joy of being a magician and all of a sudden his life begins to turn around. With the help of his former assistant, Jane (Olivia Wilde), Burt decides to try to return to his former glory, but is it too late now that the world has its eyes on Steve Gray?

I sort of felt the same way about this film like the way Burt and Anton´s characters felt about Steve Gray in that they said that what he was doing wasn’t really magic. They were just some distasteful tricks he was pulling off. In the same way this comedy can´t actually be called a film, it is just a bunch of distasteful and unfunny scenes one after another. Carell´s character is so egocentric and unlikeable that it doesn’t make much sense really why his assistant still stuck around him. By the time he turns his life around it is just a little too late for the audience to relate and like his character. I really didn’t care much for what happened to him. The film could have focused more on Carrey´s character who in my opinion does one of his funniest roles in a long time. The best thing about this film is his character and the few scenes he is in. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if the producers decide to make a spin off and make a film about him, although this film did so badly at the box office that they probably won´t want to take the risk. There is no magic whatsoever in this film, and I recommend you stay away from it.  

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My Review: I Love You Phillip Morris (7/10)

¨My whole life was nothing but a bunch of lies. Lies to make people give me their money, lies to make people love me, and lies to keep them from leaving me, and in the process I lost track of who I was.¨

Jim Carrey plays the love interest of Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) in this romantic comedy/drama directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The directors have worked together in the past writing the screenplay for Bad Santa and Cats and Dogs, but this is the first time that they actually direct a film written by them. This is not your typical Jim Carrey goofy comedy, the performance is a little more serious and it is a different type of comedy that isn`t afraid of taking risks and being original. Carrey`s performance is more like the ones he did in Man on the Moon, The Majestic, or The Truman Show. The screenplay is adapted from Steve McVicker`s book which is based on true events about a gay conman who meets the love of his life in prison and will do whatever it takes to escape from prison to be with him. Carrey is a good actor, but I think who really steals this movie is Ewan McGregor who plays a very different kind of role than what we have seen from him in the past. This movie hasn`t been released in the US yet, although it was previewed in January 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival. I don`t know why it has taken so long for this movie to find a wide release in the US, but it is a very original comedy that may have a little trouble at finding a target audience. This movie takes a lot of risks and therefore probably was never meant to become a hit, but more of a small and quiet indie comedy. It is the Catch Me if You Can movie for gays.

The movie is narrated by the main protagonist Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) who is lying in his hospital bed and telling us the story of his life. When he was a young boy his parents let him know that he was adopted and ever since he becomes obsessed with trying to find his biological mother. He is a happily married man living with his wife Debbie (Leslie Mann) and working as a police officer in order to try to discover who his real mother is. Once he finds the information he needs, he visits her and discovers she wants nothing to do with him. Steven doesn`t understand why she gave him up for adoption, even more since he was the middle son. From that point on he decides to quit the police force and tell his wife about the secret he has been keeping from her: that he is gay and has been for a long time. This confession sets him free and he begins to live life to its fullest, although this lifestyle he`s living is pretty expensive. He moves to Miami and finds a boyfriend Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro), but their luxurious lifestyle together makes him become a conman and it is not too long until the police catch up to him and arrests him. But fate has a funny way of doing things and it is in prison where he meets his soul mate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). Their romance blossoms in the prison and when they are released as well, but Steven continues to live a life of lies and sooner or later it will catch up to him again.

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are one of the reasons this movie stands out. They give some good and strong performances and impress us by doing something different. The movie has its ups and downs, it is not an excellent film or a laugh out loud movie, it is more of a romantic drama that will make you smile at some points. Carrey`s character is so buried in a world of lies and frauds that one would think he would be impossible to like, but he creates a difficult character because it is hard not to sympathize with him. We find ourselves rooting for him each time he escapes from prison, impersonates a lawyer, or becomes a chief financial adviser for an important company. These are the people everyone hates in real life, conmen, but Carrey makes his character a likeable one while at the same time not trying to sugarcoat him the way Hollywood does with most thieves. Steven Russell knows his flaws, but we identify with him because we see his actions as some sort of addiction and issue he can`t surpass. He knows it will affect his relationship and his life, but he can´t help from being a conman because it is what he is good at. The film works combining all these elements very well into this sort of romantic comedy/drama. It is not a film for everyone, but I found it entertaining.

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