Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Directed by Troy Miller
Starring Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson, Rachel Nichols, Eugene Levy and Cheri Oteri
Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, and for language.

Lisa said in an episode of The Simpsons (Lisa’s Substitute from Season 2), "You’ll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator." And mostly this is true. Films like There’s Something About Mary and some of the more recent Adam Sandler films, certainly prove this. If you kick people in the balls a lot and make fart jokes, you’ll find an audience with 12-30 year old men. But this film is apparently an exception to the statement made by Lisa. It hasn’t done very well in its first two weeks (opened in 6th place and was in 9th its 2nd week making only $4 million) despite is amazing stupidity and fart jokes. This film is just like the man with the 12-inch penis who can’t please any woman. Even though the film has what it takes, it has no idea how to use it. This film shows that maybe there is a point at which even immature men are no longer interested.

I’ll be honest. This film never had a chance with me. I didn’t like the first one, so there was no way this film was going to appeal to me. And I like fart jokes. But I also like a little substance in my humor. This film is just amazingly dumb. There is almost no shred of intelligence anywhere near the film. With the exception of a brilliant line by Eugene Levy, which I will note I laughed at very loudly while no one else in the theater made a sound (Just like in the monkey story, which hopefully I’ve told you about). And I guess this isn’t surprising considering Troy
Miller’s last real film was Jack Frost (Sorry its not the one about the snowman mass murderer, he did the one with Michael Keaton). But it is surprising because Miller has done a lot of work with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk of HBO’s Mr. Show fame. And they are both quite funny. So maybe I should be placing the blame on writer Robert Brener. After all, this was his first produced screenplay ever. And since it is possible to be clever and dumb at the same time, for instance look at Pee Wee’s Big Adventure or the Pee-Wee TV show, this film didn’t have to be as bad as it is. And frankly, I could have used a little more character development. Part of the reason for this film, besides a chance to make some more money, was to explain a little more of what made Harry and Lloyd who they are. But in fact, this film doesn’t do much of anything to explain them. So you’re left confused as to how these two became as stupid as they are.

Olsen and Richardson are made to look amazingly similar to Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. But they aren’t as funny as those guys. And I can’t stand Cheri Oteri, despite the fact that she’s probably at her least annoying in this film. The real disappointment in this film is the use of Eugene Levy. I personally love Eugene Levy. He was the best part by far in the American Pie films and was truly amazing in his recent role in A Mighty Wind. And with the exception of the line I noted earlier in this review, he was rather uninteresting. And maybe that is
again the fault of Robert Brener, but I hear that Levy is an amazing improviser, so I am surprised how disappointing he is in this film. I did however enjoy the brief parts played by Shia LaBeouf and Bob Saget.

This film is hardly worth reviewing. You knew what I was going to say about the film. You knew I wouldn’t like it and you knew pretty much why. But I really wanted to use that line about the guy with the 12-inch penis. I think its pretty funny. This film was not funny. I recommend you stay way the hell away from this film. Its not worth a rental and its not worth even sneaking into for 10 minutes. And if you want, I’ll tell you what the line was from Levy that I liked so much so that you don’t have to think about seeing the movie to hear it.

Rating 15%