A new genre???

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2001)

Until I saw Dumb and Dumber I thought of Jim Carrey as blatantly obnoxious. Cable Guy,Ace Ventura,Truman Show-Yuck! I watched this movie with my kids as a favor to them long after the film had left the theatres. I think I've seen it around seven times now and have to say that Carrey has joined the ranks of the great comedians. Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy,Peter Sellers,Jerry Lewis,Don Knotts,Cary Grant these and many more knew the secret of making us laugh. They each had a niche in the broad genre we call comedy.Hi-brow,low-brow,ineptitude,slapstick, farce,black humor, we like it all for one reason. It makes us laugh. I can remember tears coming down my cheeks when I watched Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush. That same thing has happened in not nearly enough other comedies I've seen over the years. It's happened every time I've watched Dumb and Dumber. What a great way to end the first century of film-making. D and D will endure like all the great comedies before. Dumb and Dumber is well written and well acted. I can't say that I condone the spirit of crassness that defines so much of our present culture. I think we've suffered as a culture for giving in to cheap laughs too often. There are definitely elements of that in Dumb and Dumber but it transcends even those. There are moments of sheer brilliance both in writing and performance. The timing of many of the gags was also a major driving force. What you end up with is a film that at some point or another has to make even the most jaded film-goer laugh out loud at least once. 6.2 is an insult to this film. Look deeper. Give it the ten it deserves.