Reel Critics: ‘Dumber’ doesn’t equal better

The Farrelly Brothers broke new ground in 1994 with their surprise hit “Dumb and Dumber.”

They took zany, slapstick comedy to a whole new level using double dimwits played by Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Their Three Stooges-style escapades and crackpot humor made a refreshing splash on the screen. But the sequel never lives up to even the limited promise of the original.

“Dumb and Dumber To” has Carrey and Daniels playing the same wacko dudes, Lloyd and Harry. They are older but definitely no wiser. The lame plot sends them on a preposterous road trip. Harry is looking for a daughter he may have fathered in his distant past. Ridiculous pretense puts a hired killer on their trail as part of the story’s parade of nonsense.

As in the first film, the sequel offers a ton of bodily function jokes and politically incorrect gags. Most fall flat. For each good laugh, there are many more periods of silence or groans from the audience. Time has not been kind to the bizarre silliness format employed here. Absurd ignorance and mindless stupidity have their limits as entertainment today.

—John Depko

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Getting full with ‘Hunger Games’

As much as I enjoy the series, is it wrong to feel disappointed in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1?”

Splitting the final book of the trilogy into two movies doesn’t work here as well as it did with the “Harry Potter” films. It’s solid entertainment, but a very pricey two-hour trailer for the (hopefully) epic conclusion.

Picking up where last year’s “Catching Fire” left off, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) has been rescued by rebels and safely tucked away in a bunker.

Katniss, a tough warrior in the first two installments, is now chiefly only a reactor to the chaos around her. The rebel president (Julianne Moore) and former game designer turned strategist (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) want to use Katniss for propaganda to spur the oppressed into taking a stand against the evil Capitol government.

The Capitol president (Donald Sutherland, a delightfully silken-voiced villain) in turn is using Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Katniss’ former teammate and proclaimed lover, for some well-rehearsed public service announcements against her. Stung by this betrayal, Katniss must come to terms with her feelings for Peeta even as her affection for the much-hunkier Gale (Liam Hemsworth) is growing.

If this all sounds like a soap opera, it is, but with chic military jumpsuits. Lawrence, Hoffman and Moore play their parts with heart, grit and intelligence. Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks provide some acid humor, while Hutcherson and Hemsworth are still lamentably one-note.

The action in “Part 1” is stretched thin like a big shiny balloon, and only in the final few minutes do we get that excitement that it’s ready to pop. But for that, we shall have to wait another year for “Part 2.” Let’s hope it can deliver on expectations.

—Susanne Perez

JOHN DEPKO is a retired senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. He lives in Costa Mesa and works as a licensed private investigator. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a company in Irvine.