Synopsis
Before they went on a trip across the country together, Harry (Derek Richardson) and Lloyd (Eric Christian Olsen) first met in high school. Their high school principal (Eugene Levy) give Harry and Lloyd the task of finding “special” students for their class. Little do they know, the class is a scheme by the principal to con money for him and his girlfriend (Cheri Oteri).
Review
I think it is safe to say that Dumb and Dumber was a bit of a surprise hit. On paper, the premise and characters sound ridiculous but it works because it has a lot of heart. That’s where Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd fails. It lacks the heart that makes the first film work. Like any comedy follow up, it tries to make similar jokes as its predecessor since that’s often part of what made it work in the first place. This time, they fail to hit their mark. The film wasn’t nearly as funny and I barely laughed. When I did, it was often because of how absurd it was, and not the good absurd that Dumb and Dumber is. It has moments that are marginally tolerable but they are mere drops in a bucket of dirty water. One redeeming quality I can see in this movie is Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen did a good job of imitating Jim Carrey’s Lloyd and Jeff Daniel’s Harry, respectively. The biggest problem with this prequel is that it does nothing to expand on the characters that we see in the first film.
I thought Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was BAD 😦 With the exception of a handful, the jokes fall flat and it doesn’t have any sort of redeeming qualities that I can see. I guess this kind of poor quality is what happens when a studio goes for a cash grab on a property and the guys that made the first film a success are not included.
Also read my reviews for Dumb and Dumber and Dumb and Dumber To.
Trailer
Cast & Crew
Troy Miller – Director / Screenplay
Robert Brener – Story / Screenplay
Eban Schletter – Composer
Derek Richardson – Harry Dunne
Eric Christian Olsen – Lloyd Christmas
Mimi Rogers – Mrs. Dunne
Luis Guzman – Ray
Rachel Nichols – Jessica
Eugene Levy – Principal Collins
Cheri Oteri – Ms. Heller
Elden Henson – Turk
Josh Braaten – Toby
William Lee Scott – Carl
Michelle Krusiec – Ching Chong
Shia LeBeouf – Lewis
Teal Redmann – Terri
Brian Posehn – Store Clerk
Drew's Movie Reviews 
I agree, I could barely sit through this movie!
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I almost didn’t! There were several times I just wanted to turn it off but I didn’t on the hopes that it would get better. But sadly it never happened. 😦
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It’s a shame, this and the official sequel from 2014 are awful. All the gags seems forced, there’s no intelligence about it and it’s like comedy has completely forgotten how to cater to adult humour. I miss the Farrelly classics like “Me, Myself & Irene”, “There’s Something About Mary” and even “Kingpin”. Now they were was good comedy’s.
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This felt like a cash grab and the 2014 sequel felt too late. The studio should just have left a great movie alone. Dumb and Dumber worked being a stand-alone film. Not everything needs to be some sort of series.
Thanks for commenting, Stefano. 🙂
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What this movie did do was kick off the trend of making sequels to Jim Carrey films, with the one ingredient that made the original so successful missing: Jim Carrey.
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