Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 3/10

Cast: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin, Steve Tom, Don Lake, Patricia French, Kathleen Turner, Gregory Fears, Bill Murray, Paul Blackthorne, Brady Bluhm, Lindsay Ayliffe, Eddie Shin, Tembi Locke, Atkins Estimond, Tommy Snider, Michael Yama, Nancy Yee, Grant James, Taylor St. Clair.

Some sequels are so well worth waiting for that the time elapsed between films only adds to the excitement of what will unfold as you finally take your seat. Like the Back to the Future trilogy, these films only give the audience that extra tingle as they see characters they have loved come back and take their lives on yet another tantalising journey.

Then there are those films in which an audience member can only start to weep a few minutes in as they realise that a sequel is just another excuse in which to believe that Dante may have had a point about the seven circles of Hell and that expectant cinema goers are sometimes reserved a special place in which even allegedly the American Secret Service would suggest that torture is not an option. Such is the fate for Dumb and Dumber To.

In one of the only truly laugh out loud moments, in which the well placed fart joke has a new twist, it is actually possible to feel the doom clouds gather over you as you feel ashamed for letting yourself be suckered into the punch line. In a film where a cat on Crystal Meth and a disguised Bill Murray get the biggest laugh, there is not much hope left…at least though it doesn’t descend into the true gut wrenching abysmal offering served up in the film Bad Neighbours, and the problem with that is, it’s not even a compliment.

To feel shame at the expense of a joke, is to know that a film such as Dumb and Dumber To is perhaps not just scrapping the barrel but actively sending in Jim Carrey to jump inside to lick it clean.

The film perhaps on paper offered much, but then again so does toilet tissue and it seems such a shame that Ms. Kathleen Turner and even Jeff Daniels felt so inclined to be flushed down the pan with the entire premise. It used to be said that Bill Murray had never once been in a bad film, it’s never good to see a rule so completely blown apart.

It has been 20 years since the original Dumb and Dumber film; it’s possible to actually believe that it might have been good for comedy if its sequel might have not appeared for another 20.

Avoid if possible, feign illness where necessary and wait for a funnier film with better gags to lift the spirits, because any film that can cause you to feel shame, is not going to be the highlight of your year.

Ian D. Hall