DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD

US, 2003, 85 minutes, Colour.
Derek Richardson, Eric Christian Olsen, Mimi Rogers, Lewis Guzman, Rachel Nichols, Eldon Henson, Eugene Levy.
Directed by Troy Miller.

It's not a lot of people who will be immediately attracted by this title. Yes, it is a fairly dumb film. No, it is not quite as dumb as so many others in this seemingly proliferating genre. For example, My Boss's Daughter is dumberer.

What is of movie lore interest is that this is a prequel to the Farrelly Brothers' 1994 hit, Dumb and Dumber, a star vehicle for Jim Carrey in his early days and for Jeff Daniels. The challenge for this film was to find young lookalikes for Carrey and Daniels and coax them to act in ways that the stars did. On the whole, they have succeeded with Eric Christian Olsen the Carrey character and Derek Richardson for Jeff Daniels.

There are some funny moments among the silly ones, bodily function jokes and lots of slapstick (after all the classic movie diarrhoea involved Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber; this time the joke is on chocolate). When Harry and Lloyd go to school, they become friends although jealousy arises when they are both attracted to the school's most glamorous student who just happens to be the paper's investigator researching some dishonest goings on with the school principal (Eugene Levy skilfully funny as usual). Of course, it will be funny only if you feel in a dumb