STACK NZ May Issue #62

DVD & BD

FEATURE

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Peter and Bobby Farrelly essentially invented the gross-out comedy genre with the 1994 smash Dumb And Dumber. The brothers look back fondly at their first big hit and explain why it has taken so long to bring Harold and Lloyd back to the big screen in Dumb And Dumber To .

of it about 15 years ago. Jim Carrey was unavailable at the time and we kind of dropped the ball. Then, about five years ago, Jim saw the original Dumb and Dumber on TV, got the bug to do another one, called us, and we were ready to go.” “We have never done a sequel,” continues Bobby. “But of all the movies we have made, Dumb and Dumber sets itself up for a sequel the best.” According to the brothers, the great thing about Harry and Lloyd is they do not change. They haven’t grown in maturity, they have got the same apartments, they haven’t got new jobs, and they still don’t have much luck with the ladies. “All they have is each other,” continues Peter. “Because of that you are able to take a very similar ride with these guys that you took on the first one. And it truly is a great ride.” Although it had been 20 years since Carrey and Daniels had played the dim-witted duo, it didn’t take long for them slip back into character. Says Bobby: “We do not even really rehearse, do we? We do a read-through, but it is not even really a rehearsal. I think once the guys get their hair right, they go right back into those characters.” On the first Dumb and Dumber film, Peter got the director’s credit but on the sequel – as with most of their other subsequent films – they shared directorial duties. Peter says they tend to share film-making duties equally. So what’s the secret of the long-running film- making partnership – how do you work together for that many years and remain on good terms? “We do not agree all the time,” admits Bobby. “A lot of times we will see things differently. But if Peter sees it differently, I respect his opinion and I will take a second look. You might fight for a day or two, you do not carry any grudges.”

“W e just wanted to do a movie about two dumb guys who go on the road to Aspen,” recalls Peter Farrelly. “And then as it kept going we started having more and more fun with the stupidity of these two guys. Of course, the rest of Hollywood did not understand it.” It’s hard to believe now but back in 1994 the concept of gross-out comedy didn’t really exist, so when struggling screenwriters Peter and his brother Bobby first started pitching their idea for what would become Dumb and Dumber , they received a very lukewarm reaction. “People would always read it and say, ‘that’s

But of all the movies we have made, Dumb and Dumber sets itself up for a sequel the best.

funny’, says Bobby. “And then they would hand it to whoever at the studio and it would just get to a point where someone would say, ‘this is dumb’.”

passed on us. But we found out years later, they did not really pass. Their agents passed. Their agents just saw the title, Dumb and Dumber , and threw it away.” However, the Farrellys ended up having the last laugh: Dumb and Dumb went on to to become a huge hit and effectively created a whole new genre, the gross-out comedy. Now the siblings have returned to the characters who started it all, Harold (once again played by Jim Carrey) and Lloyd (Jeff Daniels), for a long

Peter adds: “Well, we always thought that a hundred actors had

overdue sequel Dumb and Dumber To. The pair may now be a bit older but they are certainly not any wiser and the new film finds them embarking on another disaster-prone road trip to locate Harry’s newly discovered daughter.

So why the sequel now? Peter Farrelly replies: “We are doing it now because the stars aligned. But we thought

• Dumb And Dumber To is out on May 6

MAY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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