Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Thanks for the memories!

One of my all time favorites.

Brilliant and touching

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The more you watch, the more you quote it. The more you quote it, the funnier it gets. Moc-king-bird! Rat poison! Hooters! Samsonite! Kick his ass sea bass! The nearest town is that way! Pretty bird!

Hoping to return an abandoned briefcase to a beautiful woman he drove to the airport, a limousine driver takes his best friend on a cross country trip, unaware that he is being pursued by angry kidnappers in this comedy starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. As per the title, the running gag is that the friends are incredibly stupid - and oblivious to the fact that the briefcase contains a hefty ransom. The film gets its best laughs from the kidnappers coming to believe that the pair are highly trained assassins and criminal masterminds; their ignorance towards being pursued is also often funny with the pair leaving a note to the "gas man", which the kidnappers think is written to them and so on. What does not work so well are the simple scenes of the pair acting stupid. From blowing their noses on $100 bills to getting their tongues stuck on cold surfaces, it is all pretty groan-inducing stuff. There is an overabundance of toilet humour too (the cop taking a drink scene is very funny though). Daniels also gets far better laughs than Carrey. The way Daniels manages to keep a straight face while saying things like his pet bird's "head fell off" is far more amusing than Carrey's excessive mugging. Thorns and all though, this is entertaining stuff while it lasts. The gags may vary in effectiveness but the leads are always vibrant and full of energy with a very genuine chemistry between them.

Lloyd proves himself to be as literate as anyone else throughout the movie, reading to himself the flight status screens in the terminal, the note on the stall wall, and the famous "Samsonite" tag. Then in the hotel bed, Harry asks him what's on next and he was going to look it up just as anyone would, both under the assumption that he can still read perfectly well. He suddenly can't make out a word, not even 'the', to save his life. So,...OK, he CAN'T read now; got it. Then later, as he leaves the hotel bar, he walks by the newspaper headline about landing on the moon and apparently can read perfectly well again.

This movie to me is the exact opposite of what the title and the plot suggest. It is hysterically funny, but it's not so much the jokes that make you laugh, but the wicked and wildly optimistic humor they are rooted in. We see two guys acting totally stupid all of the time. Why doesn't it become boring after five minutes? Because all this dumbness is not shown to generate cheap laughs. The jokes point to something deeper, something more substantial and important for our lives. The final scene, which left me gasping for breath, makes it totally clear: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Which may be translated into our daily lives as: relax, and trust yourself to find your individual path to happiness - so what, if you look dumb to your fellow men! I love this movie.