I recall being a very excited nine-year-old sitting with my brother in a nearly packed theater watching Dumb and Dumber. It turned out to be one of the funniest comedies I’ve ever seen, so hilarious in its insanity, and the flick remains just as entertaining to me to this day. Sadly, I didn’t get the same feeling while viewing the prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd.

Sitting by myself in the theater, without a soul around me, I felt like I was trapped in a torture chamber with no one else around to share my misery. What I saw was a comedy classic being desecrated before my eyes by the very studio that released it -- a formula that worked wonders the first time being laid to waste with one pathetic, laugh-free joke and pratfall after another. While Dumb and Dumber was crude and hilarious, Dumb and Dumberer emerges as crude and useless.

The story takes the viewers back to 1986, when Harry Dunne (Derek Richardson) and Lloyd Christmas (Eric Christian Olsen) were two high school students just meeting for the first time. Their first day at school is a fitting one, as both guys are placed in a “special needs” class, a scam organized by Principal Collins (Eugene Levy) and his lunch lady paramour (Cheri Oteri) to bilk more money from the school system. Beneficiaries of this academic ruse, Harry and Lloyd become fast friends through the various misadventures they share, from starting a game of tag inside a convenience store to cruising down the street in a shopping cart. Unwittingly, the guys become involved with a bright high schooler (Rachel Nichols) and her quest to blow the lid off of the principal’s scam. The guys find their friendship torn when both think she’s in love with the other one, a rough spot that needs to be patched when, God forbid, it comes down to them to expose Collins and save the day.

There are two things I liked about Dumb and Dumberer. Just two. One is the title, which is funnier and more original than any of the screenplay’s tired material. The other is Eric Christian Olsen, who gives a performance so eerily similar to Jim Carrey, you have to sit back and admire the guy for trying this hard and actually succeeding. With those two exceptions, Dumb and Dumberer stands as one of the worst movies I’ve had to endure in a theater. There's no charm or humor to this prequel at all, just a series of inane, gross jokes presented in rapid succession without an ounce of the freshness that made Dumb and Dumber work. Forget building up jokes for a big payoff (the closest comes when Harry’s chocolate bar melts, and the result involves Bob Saget screaming the “s” word for a minute or so). Forget getting acquainted with characters you root for despite their vast stupidity; the Harry and Lloyd of Dumb and Dumberer come across like two dorks who would never grow up to be as funny as Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey played them. 

There’s no heart in this material, nothing that makes Dumb and Dumberer hilarious despite its grossness. Perhaps it’s because this one doesn’t go for broke, opting for “safe” jokes that just barely touch the edge of risqué humor. It also doesn’t help that almost all cast members are wasted in one form or another. Olsen does a great Lloyd, but Derek Richardson can't pull off the role of Harry with any semblance of silliness compared to the wonderful Jeff Daniels. Although Nichols appears to know her stuff, her role presents little challenge. All she has to do is wonder if Harry and Lloyd really are that stupid, something the audience can do without any help. Levy, coming off a terrific turn in A Mighty Wind, and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Oteri receive no opportunities to show off their normally terrific comedic talents. Mimi Rogers is wasted as Harry’s mom, but  Luis Guzman is just cool enough on his own to make an impression as Lloyd’s janitor dad.

Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd joins  National Security on my list of the worst movies released so far during 2003. 

MY RATING: * (out of ****)

(Released by New Line Cinema and rated "PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor and language.)

Review also posted at www.ajhakari.com.