Dumb and Dumber

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 American comedy film starring Jim Carrey, and Jeff Daniels. It was written and directed by the Farrelly brothers, featuring slapstick comedy and gross-out humor. Dumb and Dumber contributed to the launch of a successful career for them and set the foundation for many Farrelly Brothers movies to come. It has a devoted cult following.


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 a mild box office success.


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. She drops off a briefcase with a large sum of cash at the airport terminal, as ransom money for her kidnapped husband, unbeknown to Lloyd. Lloyd witnesses the drop-off, and, thinking Mary has left the briefcase by mistake, intercepts the package before the kidnapper's accomplices pick up their pay, dashing ahead of them to snag the briefcase. Lloyd is unable to catch Mary in time, and is left on the tarmac of the airport with briefcase in hand (after having run off the end of an empty jet bridge).


Harry Dunne, Lloyd's roommate, is in the pet grooming business, and has recently spent his life savings converting his van (a 1984 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 kidnappers exact revenge on Harry and Lloyd. Shortly after returning home, Lloyd and Harry are alarmed by the kidnappers 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 kidnappers behead Harry's pet parakeet. After they return home, Lloyd, who had just been robbed of beer and other goods by "a sweet old lady on a motorized cart," convinces Harry they should leave their messed-up lives in Providence behind and head for Aspen to return the briefcase to Mary, unaware the locked briefcase contains enough money to support them both. The kidnappers learn of their intentions and pursue the two Aspen-bound men.


On their way to Aspen, Harry and Lloyd have several misadventures. They pick up one of the kidnappers, Joe 'Mental' Mentalino (Mike Starr), who says that his car broke down, and the other kidnapper (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. 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 knock open the briefcase and discover the money. 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, off-color suits. 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.


Eventually the two are found out by the man behind the kidnapping plot, Nicholas Andre, a long time confidant of the Swanson family, who holds the three in their hotel room at gunpoint. When Lloyd reveals all the money is gone, replaced with I.O.U.'s written on dirty napkins, the kidnapper freaks and almost kills the pair. The FBI intercede, and Mary is reunited with her husband, much to Lloyd's dismay, who didn't even realize Mary was married.


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, instead walking 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 big break too, we've just got to keep our eyes open".


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.


The film currently garners an overall 62% "fresh" approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. While Roger Ebert gave the film only two of four stars (despite lauding Carrey's performance and the dead parakeet joke), most reviews were positive. Stephen Holden of the New York Times called Jim Carrey "the new Jerry Lewis", 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.


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.


Scenes taking place in Aspen were actually filmed in Breckenridge, Colorado and Park City, Utah. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado (the main influence for The Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining) was transformed into the "Danbury Hotel" for the filming of the movie. The scenes filmed in the snow were shot at Copper Mountain Resort.


Most of the external street scenes were filmed in Salt Lake City. 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. The airport scenes were all shot at the Salt Lake City International Airport.


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.


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.


On numerous occasions Jeff Daniels has said he would like to do another movie but Jim Carrey hasn't agreed to anything.


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.


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


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.


Dumb and Dumber (1994) · Kingpin (1996) · There's Something About Mary (1998) · Me, Myself & Irene (2000) · Osmosis Jones (2001) · Shallow Hal (2001) · Stuck on You (2003) · Fever Pitch (2005) · The Heartbreak Kid (2007) · The Three Stooges (2009)