Infantile something about nothing

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 1999)

* (1 star of 5)
There`s Something About Mary Directed by Bobby and Peter Farelli, 1999
Infantile something about nothing
I did not watch this movie amidst all the hype that it enjoyed when it was released (and grossing in excess of $100 million in US box office). Maybe that is why. Then again, maybe not.
This movie is one big, loud, silly, vulgar, pathetic and - excuse me - 'dumb-ass' movie. The latter in the sense that it contains scenes so stupid and so degrading that I was actually watching most of it with my mouth open in total amazement as to the length the Farelly brothers went in creating what I term 'shock-laughs'.
There is male sperm being mistaken for hair gel. There is the male genitals getting stuck in a zipper (and was that the most original they could come up with? I mean, Porky`s The Movie, did a better twist on the `male penis' - giggle giggle - getting stuck `somewhere' and that was over 20 years ago!), there is animal cruelty, there is handicapped people being made fun of, and there is a pair of old breasts courtesy of an elderly woman made out to ridicule.
All of this can be fun, do not get me wrong. If done in an original and fresh form. Only this is so vivid and so out-there that it most of the time seems oddly restrained in all of its brash nature and truly un-appropriate throughout.
And what`s with that fake dog? My local toy store has better stuffed teddy bears. Scenes like that of the much used clichè : 'girl´s killer dog attacking the boy who is there to pick her up for a date', well they have been seen a million times before. So the least they could do was make something of it. But oh no. It really is annoying to the point you would question the effort they - the film makers - lacked in trying just vaguely to make this somewhat believable for the sake of a good laugh. Instead we get Ben Stiller wrestling a toy dog.
Knowing the directors (they also made the crude and over-the-top Jim Carrey laugh, Dumb & Dumber, yet here Carrey added a touch of poignancy to the stupid laughs), There`s Something About Mary will not shock as many people as is intended. It strives so hard to be as unpolitically correct as possible and is merely concieved as being a bunch of implausible laughs blown totally out of proportion.
It is beyond screwball. It is screwball fast forwarded.

It may work (and obviously did at the box office) for teenagers but since it has no subtlety whatsoever I kept expecting aliens to land og Mary to turn into an axe-murderer.
I remember seeing the trailer for this movie. All the above mentioned scenes were in it. Also a scene where Mary`s brother gets a fish hook stuck in Ben Stillers mouth. And that is about it. There you have it. The laughs. I have talked to many people who were dissapointed in the movie because the trailer already showed all the laughs. In a nutshell people; the film makers again play it as loud as possible whenever possible. Even when editing the trailer.
This movie has not got one, honest laugh. Ok, correction. There is one good belly-shaker. A mix up. The main character played by Ben Stiller gets mistaken for somebody else and held in custody by the local (southern) police force (subsequently Stiller gets fondled by a big brute in jail and so forth). Ever seen such a scene in any movie before in your life? Yeah, exactly.