In 1994, Dumb and Dumber became an unexpected box office hit, grossing over $247 million worldwide and launching an already rising star in Jim Carrey into another stratosphere. For Jeff Daniels, doing a comedy meant risking his career. Daniels admitted this in a recent interview with Reuters, "I think easily for 10 years"”and because of the success of Dumb and Dumber"”I was no longer taken seriously." He went on to add, "As soon as you do comedy, then you're not serious anymore, which has always bothered me because the last time you looked, the Greeks are holding up two masks"”and to be able to do both seems to be the point of being an actor."
Though the backlash lasted for a while, Daniels has gone on to do critically-acclaimed work in movies like The Squid and the Whale and his Emmy-winning turn in Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama The Newsroom. Carrey himself has also seen his share of backlashes. While he too has had success in dramatic films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, his recent batch of comedies hasn't struck gold as they did in the '90s and early 2000s. In 2013, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was a big box office bomb, grossing $27.5 million after a rather unexpected $10.5 million opening.
So, why return to Dumb and Dumber-land? According to Netflix, it's a cult classic"”why mess that up with a sequel? It's obvious that this film has a strong fanbase, but that doesn't mean Hollywood has to listen to them. Oh, wait, I forgot. This is Hollywood"¦ producing unnecessary movies is what they do, but I can see the reasoning. It's been twenty years since the first film came out and so, in theory, that should be plenty of time to write a good sequel. And oh yeah, the first movie made a lot of money.
I watched Dumb and Dumber for the first time recently, and I must admit I laughed a lot. It was a genuinely funny movie, but the sequel has too many jokes that fall flat, lack cleverness, and heart. Yes, heart. Lloyd's monologue about loneliness in the first movie was sad and honestly moving. I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting tired "Get it?! These-guys-are-dumb!" jokes, which the first film has plenty of, but the filmmakers seemed to execute it in a fresher way than the sequel does. Despite potential backlash, the film's two stars wanted to do a sequel anyway.
In a June 2012 article for Eonline.com, Carrey stated that he was ready to do a sequel but sensed the executives at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema were not eager to get a movie made. There may have also been some hesitation to do another Farrelly Brothers movie (the guys who made the first Dumb and Dumber) since their last film The Three Stooges (2012) was a big box office flop. In June 2013, Deadline.com reported that the talks resumed, and Universal Pictures stepped in to distribute Dumb and Dumber To while the production company Red Granite financed it. And so this Friday, November 14, 2014, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are ready to get dumb with you all over again. But there's just one question: Is the world too smart to fall for it this time?
