Harold & Kumar Versus Dumb & Dumber
Thursday, 18 August 2011 22:32![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physics30 Minutes Or Less [R]
We don't do most American comedies. It's a combination of not our cup of tea and the trailers show all the most potential jokes, which usually fall short. But... 30 Minutes Or Less is the first film shot in Grand Rapids MI that didn't go direct to DVD. Really. So we had to go on opening day last Friday.
The big question when we saw The Social Network was whether the star was really that geeky or just the perfect actor for the role. We now know it's the latter. Harold (we're not using the real characters' names here if you haven't guessed) is a geek but in a totally different way. And the opening pizza delivery run is great fun and we've driven on those Grand Rapids streets. (grin)
The central plot is very disturbing. Dumb & Dumber kidnap pizza delivery driver Harold and stuff him into bomb vest. When Harold comes to they explain he's got a deadline to steal $200,000 from a bank. This is so horrible, as real terrorists have done this and I shudder at the idea of real copycats. And given what happens at the very end, what happens to the Other Bad Guy strikes me as either racist or just an abandoned script page. Like I said, we don't watch many American comedies.
But... this is a buddy romp. Harold somehow -- and in a comedy you just have to go with it -- gets Kumar to abandon his elementary school class and help him rob the bank. They are incompetent bank robbers -- what they know about bank robbing is from movies -- and even worse at stealing a better getaway car. And thank goodness they both had NOT seen The Hurt Locker. Fortunately Harold is the luckiest sad sack in the world. Kumar's sister is the one successful person in the whole movie and she's too good for Harold. Then there's Dumb & Dumber, who want Dumb Dad's money. Thing is, Dumb thinks he's a mastermind genius, but he's just a lazy neverwasbeen. His poor abused buddy Dumber actually CAN build a working bomb vest or a flame thrower.
What we really appreciated in this movie is all the dialogue. Yeah, it's foul mouthed -- everyone uses the f-word to excess, but in a crazy way it works. The geeky people I know banter all the time.
Of course we stayed for the credits to see the Grand Rapids mentions. But we were the only ones left in the theatre to see the Dr. Phil Special at the very end. Like the DPS at the end of Super 8, it's silly and over the top, but it works stupidly well in the context of Dumb & Dumber.
Fact is, there's a lot of twists in this one and we had a good time and that's pretty weird.
Recommendation... uh...?
Oh hell, just go see it, especially if you're from the Midwest
Trailers: Included another real Harold & Kumar movie, this one for Christmas. We've seen all the funny bits now.
Dr. Phil
Holland 7 Theatre #3
We don't do most American comedies. It's a combination of not our cup of tea and the trailers show all the most potential jokes, which usually fall short. But... 30 Minutes Or Less is the first film shot in Grand Rapids MI that didn't go direct to DVD. Really. So we had to go on opening day last Friday.
The big question when we saw The Social Network was whether the star was really that geeky or just the perfect actor for the role. We now know it's the latter. Harold (we're not using the real characters' names here if you haven't guessed) is a geek but in a totally different way. And the opening pizza delivery run is great fun and we've driven on those Grand Rapids streets. (grin)
The central plot is very disturbing. Dumb & Dumber kidnap pizza delivery driver Harold and stuff him into bomb vest. When Harold comes to they explain he's got a deadline to steal $200,000 from a bank. This is so horrible, as real terrorists have done this and I shudder at the idea of real copycats. And given what happens at the very end, what happens to the Other Bad Guy strikes me as either racist or just an abandoned script page. Like I said, we don't watch many American comedies.
But... this is a buddy romp. Harold somehow -- and in a comedy you just have to go with it -- gets Kumar to abandon his elementary school class and help him rob the bank. They are incompetent bank robbers -- what they know about bank robbing is from movies -- and even worse at stealing a better getaway car. And thank goodness they both had NOT seen The Hurt Locker. Fortunately Harold is the luckiest sad sack in the world. Kumar's sister is the one successful person in the whole movie and she's too good for Harold. Then there's Dumb & Dumber, who want Dumb Dad's money. Thing is, Dumb thinks he's a mastermind genius, but he's just a lazy neverwasbeen. His poor abused buddy Dumber actually CAN build a working bomb vest or a flame thrower.
What we really appreciated in this movie is all the dialogue. Yeah, it's foul mouthed -- everyone uses the f-word to excess, but in a crazy way it works. The geeky people I know banter all the time.
Of course we stayed for the credits to see the Grand Rapids mentions. But we were the only ones left in the theatre to see the Dr. Phil Special at the very end. Like the DPS at the end of Super 8, it's silly and over the top, but it works stupidly well in the context of Dumb & Dumber.
Fact is, there's a lot of twists in this one and we had a good time and that's pretty weird.
Recommendation... uh...?
Oh hell, just go see it, especially if you're from the Midwest
Trailers: Included another real Harold & Kumar movie, this one for Christmas. We've seen all the funny bits now.
Dr. Phil
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Date: Friday, 19 August 2011 18:55 (UTC)It was filmed entirely in Atlanta last fall & winter, and when I happened upon what I later found out is the magic fountain it was sitting innocently in the middle of one of the biggest malls in the city. To say nothing of Ryan Renyolds' story on Leno one night about how everything that could go wrong went wrong during the shoot and Atlanta was trying to kill him...including the major ice storm that paralyzed the city the day filming wrapped and he couldn't even get out of town!
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Date: Saturday, 20 August 2011 13:36 (UTC)Maybe I'll wait for Netflix. :)
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Date: Saturday, 20 August 2011 16:54 (UTC)Dr. Phil