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Dumb and Dumber

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Dumb and Dumber
Theatrical poster
Directed byPeter Farrelly
Bobby Farrelly
Written byPeter Farrelly
Bobby Farrelly
Bennett Yellin
Produced byBrad Krevoy
Steven Stabler
Charles B. Wessler
Associate producer:
Ellen Dumouchel
Chad Oman
Bradley Jenkel
Co-producer:
Bobby Farrelly
Tracie Graham-Rice
Bradley Thomas
Executive producer:
Gerald Olson
Aaron Meyerson
StarringJim Carrey
Jeff Daniels
Lauren Holly
Mike Starr
Karen Duffy
Charles Rocket
CinematographyMark Irwin
Edited byChristopher Greenbury
Music byTodd Rundgren
Production
company
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release dates
United States:
December 16, 1994
United Kingdom:
April 7, 1995
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million
Box office$246,400,000

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 buddy comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Written and directed by the Farrelly brothers, the film follows the cross-country trek of Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels), two good-natured but incredibly dim-witted friends. Making heavy use of slapstick comedy and gross-out humor, Dumb and Dumber contributed to the launch of a successful career for the Farrelly brothers.

A prequel, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, which contained none of the original film's cast, was released in 2003 to poor critical reception, but strong box office success.

Plot

Lloyd Christmas is a simple-minded limousine driver in Providence, Rhode Island, who becomes infatuated with his passenger, Mary Swanson, as he drives her to the airport. Mary is heading home to her family in Aspen, Colorado, but leaves a briefcase at the airport. Lloyd notices, and retrieves the briefcase before a pair of thugs arrive to pick it up, dashing ahead of them to snag the briefcase. Lloyd is unable to catch Mary in time, and is left on the ramp of the airport with briefcase in hand (after having run off the end of a jetway).

Harry Dunne, Lloyd's roommate, is in the pet grooming business, and has recently spent his life savings converting his van (a 1989 Ford Econoline) into a "sheepdog". Both Lloyd and Harry quickly lose their jobs due to preventable accidents, and the two are distraught over their situation. Thinking Lloyd is a "professional" hired by the Swansons, or perhaps an FBI agent, the thugs exact revenge on Harry and Lloyd. Shortly after returning home, Lloyd and Harry are alarmed by the thugs at their door, one of them being armed. Believing them to be debt collectors, the two escape through their back window with the briefcase. While the pair are out looking for new jobs, the thugs behead Harry's pet parakeet. After they return home, Lloyd goes out to purchase some beer and other goods, but ends up getting robbed by "a sweet old lady on a motorized cart". Unhappy with life in Providence, Lloyd insists to Harry that they should leave their messed-up lives in Providence behind and head for Aspen to return the briefcase to Mary. Harry is at first skeptical of the idea, but agrees to do so after being persuaded by Lloyd. They leave the next day, and the thugs learn of their intentions and pursue the two Aspen-bound men.

On their way to Aspen, Harry and Lloyd have several misadventures. They stop at a diner for food, and Harry gets his burger spat on by a fellow patron named Sea Bass (Cam Neely) after Harry unintentionally threw a salt shaker at him. Harry and Lloyd try to reconcile with Sea Bass and his friends by offering to buy them all beers, but Lloyd decides to put the beers (as well as some other items) on Sea Bass' account and they manage to escape, only to be briefly pulled over by a police officer (Harland Williams) in Pennsylvania. Days later, Harry and Lloyd pick up one of the thugs, Joe 'Mental' Mentalino (Mike Starr), who says that his car broke down, and the other thug (Karen Duffy) follows them. When the trio stop at a restaurant for lunch, Lloyd and Harry inadvertently kill 'Mental' by accidentally feeding him rat poison that was meant for 'Mental' to use to kill them. Later, the two wind up separating when Lloyd accidentally takes a wrong turn and drives them to Nebraska instead of Colorado. With the two virtually out of gas and Harry being infuriated by Lloyd's mistake, he begins walking home, but Lloyd is able to trade the van for a small scooter, he catches up with Harry and the two proceed to Aspen.

Unable to remember Mary's last name, or locate her in the phone directory, the two spend a cold night in a park. They end up in a scuffle, and in the process discover that the briefcase is filled with a large sum of cash, as ransom money she had left at the airport terminal in exchange for her kidnapped husband, unbeknownst to Lloyd. The two decide to spend it 'responsibly' and keep track of all expenditures with "I.O.U.'s", but they end up living extravagantly: they check-in at a luxury hotel, buy a Lamborghini Diablo, have full body make-overs, and get expensive, gaudy candy-colored tuxedos (sky-blue for Harry, tangerine for Lloyd) complete with matching top hats and canes. Lloyd tries to use the money to woo Mary before revealing he has the briefcase, but Mary ends up befriending Harry, whose stupidity she mistakes for intentional humor. Harry and Lloyd both mistake Mary's friendship with Harry as a romantic interest. This belief leads to friction between the two friends.

One night, Lloyd heads to Mary's house to reintroduce himself. He also asks her to come with him to his hotel to return the briefcase. Shortly after the two are found by the man behind the kidnapping plot, Nicholas Andre (Charles Rocket), a long time confidant of the Swanson family, who holds the two in the hotel room at gunpoint. When Lloyd reveals all the money is gone, replaced with I.O.U.'s, the kidnapper freaks and handcuffs Mary and Lloyd on the bed. Harry comes in the hotel room and is also put on the bed. Harry demands to Andre that he shoot him. Andre does, and as Lloyd is about to be killed, Harry emerges again and shoots a gun at Andre, but misses all the shots. The FBI intercede, and it is revealed that the FBI was aware of Andre's presence and the kidnapping scheme, and equipped Harry with a gun and a bulletproof vest as he entered the hotel. Mary is reunited with her husband, much to Lloyd's dismay, who did not even realize Mary was married. Lloyd has a vision of himself murdering her husband, but it is interrupted when Mary introduces her husband to him.

With no money, the two begin to walk home. Along the way, they inadvertently turn down a chance to be oil boys for Hawaiian Tropic bikini models directing them instead to a nearby town. They then walk off together, saying to each other how two lucky guys will get to tour all over the country rubbing down the girls before shows. Harry reassures Lloyd that "someday we'll get our break too, we've just got to keep our eyes open".

Characters

  • Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) is a semi-literate and mischievous man who has been fired from several jobs due to his lack of intelligence and his unwillingness to work "40 hours a week", the most recent of which is driving a limousine. He melodramatically falls in love with Mary while taking her to the airport, and becomes convinced he is destined to track her down, return her misplaced briefcase, and spend his future with her. He and Harry are the main characters.
  • Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) is a good-natured dog groomer, and best friend to Lloyd. What he lacks in common sense, he makes up for by being a superior linguist to Lloyd. With Lloyd, he plans to open up his own pet store to specialize in selling worm farms; the store is tentatively named 'I Got Worms'.
  • Nicholas Andre (Charles Rocket) is the main antagonist of the movie. The polar opposite of Lloyd and Harry, Nicolas Andre is a wealthy, handsome, intelligent and upper-class resident of Aspen, Colorado, who enjoys fine living. Andre is a long time confidant of the equally wealthy family of Aspen, the Swansons; however Andre is behind the plot to kidnap Bobby Swanson and demand a ransom through third parties. His plot is unwittingly foiled by Harry and Lloyd after they find and spend the ransom money, drawing the attention of the FBI. After attempting to kill Lloyd and Harry, Andre is arrested.
  • Bobby Swanson (Brad Lockerman) is the rich victim of Andre's plot. He is in captivity throughout the movie, except at the end, when he is freed. He is the husband of Mary Swanson.
  • Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly) is an attractive lady whose husband Bobby has been kidnapped (by a family friend, it is ultimately revealed). She is the object of Lloyd's longing, and when Harry meets her, she also becomes the object of Harry's longing.
  • Joe 'Mental' Mentalino (Mike Starr), also known as 'Gas-Man,' is a tall, beefy, cold-hearted criminal who works as a henchman for Nicholas Andre, the kidnapper. He suffers from severe digestive problems, including ulcers and intestinal gas, for which he is continually seen popping prescription antacid pills. He attempts to kill Lloyd and Harry, as well as retrieve the briefcase, but is accidentally killed for his troubles when the rat poison tablets (with which he intended to poison Lloyd and Harry) are mistaken for his pills (which Harry and Lloyd tried to feed him after they, unaware of his condition, loaded a burger with extremely hot chili peppers). He is increasingly angered by the idiocy of Lloyd and Harry.
  • J.P. Shay (Karen Duffy) is the female accomplice of Mental. She appears as Andre's date at the wildlife benefit. She is arrested with Nicolas Andre by the FBI at the end of the film.
  • Beth Jordan (Victoria Rowell) is an FBI agent masquerading as a talkative young woman who is moving to Aspen to get away from her clumsy boyfriend. She is actually following Lloyd and Harry as she is investigating the kidnapping and knows they have the ransom money. She befriends Lloyd in a bar as he expects to meet with Mary, having previously met Harry as they both refueled their cars at a gasoline station.
  • Sea Bass (Cam Neely) is a trucker who spits on Harry's hamburger after Harry accidentally hits him with a salt shaker at a roadside diner, and is later foiled by Harry again, when he attempts to assault Lloyd (seen as a sexual assault) in a truck stop bathroom. Sea Bass was portrayed by hockey player Cam Neely, who also had a brief cameo in one of Jim Carrey's later films, Me, Myself and Irene, again playing Sea Bass.

Cast

Production notes

Jim Carrey, based on the box office success of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), received a salary of $7 million for this film.[1]

In a behind-the-scenes feature of the film, it was revealed that Carrey changed the ending of the movie, insisting vehemently that his character was too stupid to get on the bus with the bikini models.

Reception

The film was very successful at the box office, grossing $127,175,374 in the United States, and $246,400,000 worldwide, and topping the holiday season film gross.[2]

The film currently garners an overall 62% "fresh" approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[3] While Roger Ebert gave the film only two of four stars (despite lauding Carrey's performance and the dead parakeet joke),[4] most reviews were positive. Stephen Holden of the New York Times called Jim Carrey "the new Jerry Lewis",[5] and Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "riotous", "rib-splitting", and gave the film praise for being both a crude and slapstick comedy and a "smart comedy" at the same time.[6]

Although the film did not come away with any major American motion picture awards, it was very successful at the MTV Movie Awards. Jim Carrey won for Best Comic Performance, Carrey and Lauren Holly (a couple who would later endure a short-lived marriage) won for Best Kiss, and Jim Carrey & Jeff Daniels were nominated for Best On-Screen Duo.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Dumb and Dumber the 5th greatest comedy film of all time and the film ranks 445th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. [7]

Location

Scenes taking place in Aspen were actually filmed in Breckenridge, Colorado and Park City, Utah. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado was transformed into the "Danbury Hotel" for the filming of the movie. The "Danbury Hotel" bar scene and stair case shot were the shots filmed there. The scenes filmed in the snow were shot at Copper Mountain Resort.

Most of the external street scenes were filmed in Salt Lake City.[citation needed] The opening scene (the limo scene) was filmed on 500 East, between 500 South and 600 South. The external courtyard of Harry and Lloyd's apartment (where they give the little blind boy Petey the parrot) was filmed 226 South and 300 East. The scene with the sweet ol' lady on the motorized cart was filmed in front of Thomson & Burrows Antique Store on 270 East and 300 South. The interior shots of Harry and Lloyd's apartment were filmed in the historic Union Pacific Railway Station in downtown Salt Lake. Mary Swanson's mansion in the beginning was filmed at LaCaille Restaurant near Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Some scenes from the beginning of the movie were also shot on location in the Providence, Rhode Island metropolitan area, including shots of the skyline, The Big Blue Bug, and scenes from the beginning of their road trip were shot in locations in Cumberland.

The unrated version

Differences:

  • In the PG-13 version, when Mental tears Petey's (Harry's parakeet) head off, it cuts after he says "I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat!". In the unrated version, it shows him violently squeezing Petey's head with his fists.
  • In the unrated version, when Harry and Lloyd are in the truckstop diner, Harry complains to the waitress that his drink is no longer fizzy. The waitress deals with this by rudely grabbing the glass and blowing bubbles through the straw. In the PG-13 version this scene is absent.
  • In the PG-13 version, Sea Bass is about to spit on Harry's burger, but the camera cuts to Lloyd, while the spitting sound is still heard. In the unrated version, it shows the spit coming out of his mouth onto the burger.
  • In the unrated version, it features an extended dialogue scene between Lloyd and Harry in the honeymoon motel.
  • In the unrated version, when Joe Mental and Shay (the female accomplice) are waiting by the side of the road for Harry and Lloyd to drive by, Shay says to Joe: "Keep your shirt on, I gotta squeeze a lemon" and crouches down.
  • In the PG-13 version, "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" by XTC (covered by Crash Test Dummies for the movie) plays during the scene where Harry, Lloyd, and Mental are in the restaurant. This song is absent in the unrated version, possibly due to copyright issues.
  • In the unrated version, when Sea Bass finds Lloyd in the bathroom, Lloyd keeps repeating 'find a happy place' to which Sea Bass replies, 'I'll show you a happy place!' before dropping his own pants and grabbing his crotch.
  • In the unrated version, after the gas station scene a new scene occurs while driving where Harry makes fun of Lloyd about being in a bathroom with a 6'4" man with his pants down.
  • In the unrated version, it features an extra scene prior to Harry's departure to the slopes with Mary, in which Lloyd comments on Harry's "revealing" ski suit.
  • In the PG-13 version, when Harry is attempting to fix Mary's toilet, he shouts out that he's shaving, and we see Mary standing at the door. The unrated version shows Harry lifting the toilet to the window and dumping its contents out.

Prequel

A prequel, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was released in 2003 to largely negative reviews from the popular media and a low box office income.

Animated sequel

File:Dumb & Dumber Cartoon Title.jpg
Title card
Main article: Dumb and Dumber (TV series)

In 1995, a Hanna-Barbera-produced animated sequel aired on ABC television, as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup; Matt Frewer provided the voice of Lloyd, while Bill Fagerbakke voiced the character of Harry. In the cartoon, Harry and Lloyd have reacquired their van. The cartoon also features a new character, Kitty, a female pet purple beaver who appears to be smarter than both men. The animated series was written by Bennett Yellin, co-writer of the original film.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Dumb and Dumber: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the original soundtrack to the film.

  1. "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" by Crash Test Dummies (featuring Ellen Reid)
  2. "New Age Girl (Mary Moon)" by Deadeye Dick
  3. "Insomniac" by Echobelly
  4. "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)" by Pete Droge
  5. "Crash (The '95 Mix)" by The Primitives
  6. "Whiney, Whiney (What Really Drives Me Crazy)" by Willi One Blood
  7. "Too Much of a Good Thing" by The Sons featuring Bret Reilly
  8. "You Sexy Thing" by Deee-Lite
  9. "Where I Find My Heaven" by Gigolo Aunts
  10. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Butthole Surfers
  11. "Take" by The Lupins
  12. "The Bear Song" by Green Jellÿ
  13. "Get Ready" by The Proclaimers

The song "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" by The Cowsills was not in the soundtrack, although it was played quite prominently in the montage of Lloyd fantasizing about Mary, nor was "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, though it was featured prominently in the make-over montage.

Also missing are "Rollin Down the Hill" by The Rembrandts, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies, "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Can We Still Be Friends" by Todd Rundgren (who also wrote the original soundtrack), "Boom Shack-a-lak" by Apache Indian and "Make Love Now" by Patrick Wilson.

References

  1. ^ Cameron-Wilson, James; Speed, F. Maurice (1994), Film Review 1994-5, Great Britain: Virgin Books, p. 146, ISBN 0-86369-842-5
  2. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (January 3, 1995). "'Dumb and Dumber' Tops Holiday Film Grosses". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  3. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dumb_and_dumber/
  4. ^ Dumb And Dumber :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
  5. ^ The New York Times http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9C04E0D81438F935A25751C1A962958260&oref=slogin. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ FILM REVIEW - `Dumb and Dumber' a Smart Comedy With Lowbrow Laughs
  7. ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/11.asp
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