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Me, Myself and Irene (2000)
Okay, the Farrelly brothers don't have their best
outing here. But this film is still as funny as hell.
Jim Carrey hams it up into the stratosphere. There are
a few jokes that don't work all that well but there's
a ton that are rolling- in-the-aisle hilarious! And
then there is the gross-out humor we have come to expect
from the Farrellys. They try everything here for a laugh
and Carrey has no trepidation about any of it. Make
no mistake, this is a raunchy, dirty, foul-mouthed treat.
You will not walk away disappointed.
Now, we all know that the raunchy stuff is sometimes
outrageously funny. It's hard to go wrong with gross-out
humor. For me, however, more often than not it is the
Farrelly's intelligent and biting wit that makes me
guffaw with delight. I just refuse to give away the
best part of the film but know this: Carrey plays a
father of 3 sons in the film. The sons are used for
some damn fine intelligent humor to awesome effect.
The Farrellys bust down stereotypes with a biting brilliance
that has never been attempted. It's supreme ingeniousness
in that it is subtle and outrageous at the same time.
God. I laughed.
Carrey and his love-interest Renee Zellweger cannot
ignite any real sparks here. Carrey is so all-over-the-map
that there is really nothing she can glean on to work
with. She tries her hand at being as gross as him and
it doesn't really work. She tries to be the love-interest
and has almost nothing to use. So, the core of the film
is, in actuality, a glaring hole. But it doesn't matter.
We didn't come for storylines and plot. This isn't "situation"
comedy, really. It's just post-modern slapstick. It's
scatalogical and sexual to the extreme. How far does
it go? We even get to see a dog taking a shit here!
Yep - for reals! It's so graphic that it's almost an
homage to John Waters or something. In fact, there are
references to eating shit and to sexual contact with
a chicken here. Perhaps the Farrellys are paying a subtle
modern homage to "Pink Flamingos."
Still, the only thing about the film that truly bothered
me was the music. The Farrelly's, for no apparent reason,
have decided to highlight the music of Steely Dan in
the film. Albeit, the little known classic rock nugget
"Bodhisattva" works well in the action scenes, but the
Farrellys pepper a ton of Dan tunes in the score including
many covers. All the songs in the film sound like lame
"Mix" format radio rejects. Whiny, adult, soft pop rock.
And the tunes pop up in the most obvious and annoying
moments. It reeks of the modern cinematic Hollywood
"lets-sell-a-soundtrack" mentality. It's pointless and
oppressive.
Regardless of this minor problem, "Me, Myself and
Irene" is the comedy Carrey fans have been waiting for
since "Ace Ventura 2." It's also the follow-up we hoped
for from the Farrellys. Unfortunately, unlike "There's
Something About Mary," we really have no one to root
for here. The new film tries to be a romantic comedy
like it's predecessor and fails. But, as we have come
to expect from the sickened siblings, we still laugh
and laugh and laugh. In fact, you'll be looking for
your ass when you leave the theater, because you will
have laughed it off!
Notes:
Narrated by Rex Allen Jr. Also with Robert Forster
and Chris Cooper.
Written with Mike Cerrone. Baseball players in the
film wear t-shirt that bear the name Cerrone Industries.
The Farrelly's next two projects include writing and
producing "Say It Isn't So," a comedy about a guy who
falls in love with a woman he believes is his sister
and "Stuck on You," a comedy about Siamese twins to
star Woody Allen.
Report
Card
Script:
B-
Acting: B+
Cinematography\Lighting: C+
Special Effects\Make Up: A-
Music: D-
Final
Grade: B+
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