A movie that would be absolutely apt to explore this topic would have to be none other than Dumb & Dumber.
Dumb & Dumber was released back in 1994 and went to gross over two hundred and forty six million (yes you read it might i.e.10 raised to the power of 6- don’t worry you’re not bad at math!) dollars on a global scale. This movie is a classic example of slapstick humor. Wikipedia would like to classify this movie as having “gross-out humor” i.e. disgusting elements made use of to achieve humor.
The Plot of this film revolves mainly around two characters – Harry (dumb!), played by Jim Carrey and Lloyd (dumber!) played by Jeff Daniels. Harry and Lloyd have been best friends since high school and are now struggling to hold on to their jobs. While working as a limo driver, Lloyd falls in love with one his clients called Mary Swanson (Samsonite!! – according to Lloyd after he sees it on her bag). However Mary forgets her suitcase at the terminal. Lloyd is un-successful in trying to get it back to her before her aircraft leaves. Ensuing is a series of events in which Lloyd and Harry take a road trip full of “adventures” to aspen in an attempt to try to fight a group of criminals who are after the money in the suitcase and return the suitcase to its rightful owner, Mary Samsonite (oops Swamson!), who needs it to pay it as ransom in exchange for her husband (who has been kidnapped).
I went roaming about within the webs of Web 2.0 and found exactly what I wanted to. I visited some reputed websites that publish movie reviews and as I had expected, the opinions of the writers varied diversely. Although the writers go for the movie or go against it, I observed that it isn’t about that completely. Each and every writer out there talked about different aspects of the movie and rated the movie accordingly.
For example,
Roger Ebert, a prize winning American film critic states in his review:
“The plot is lame, but that doesn't matter, because "Dumb and Dumber" is essentially pitched at the level of an "Airplane!"-style movie, with rapid-fire sight gags. Some of them work, like the karate fight that ends with a guy getting his heart handed to him in a doggie bag. Some of them don't, like a curious scene where Carrey is hugging a girl and lifts the back of her skirt for no apparent reason: It seems creepy.”
Chris Cabin, another film critic states in his review:
“When exactly we became obsessed with diarrhea and premature ejaculation can never really be pinpointed, but Peter and Bobby Farrelly are prime suspects. He was more than happy to shovel the laughs that come from every humiliation, every bodily function and every unnatural act in the book, and why the hell not? We loved it in the '90s and we love it even more today. More than ever, we have Dumb & Dumber to blame for being a spark that ignited a flaming fart of laughter.”
In the later part of his review he says:
“The big downside, of course, is that we can see a lot of these laughs coming, and they don’t hold much staying power. As far as mindless humor goes, it’s got all the right moves, but it never tries to do more than that. The reason There’s Something About Mary is always considered with greater prestige is that it was based on a universe of characters, each with specific comic talents that hit every sort of humor one could ask for. Dumb & Dumber is sadly contained only to Harry and Lloyd, playing off the straight man, which is the entire world besides them. Still, you have to admire an overload of goofiness once in awhile, like the occasional candy binge that leads to the sugar high. If there’s any humor left in the world, those candies will more than likely be made out of some animal’s bodily fluids.”
It can clearly be seen that there is no similarity in the context that each of the above two writers is trying to cover with respect to the movie.
Roger Ebert talks about how the plot being lame doesn’t matter whereas, Chris Cabin explores the downsides of the movie by analyzing how Dumb & Dumber is to be blamed for the type of slapstick humor that we come across today.
Other reviews talk about the movie being hilarious although the plot is stupid and useless.
Montreal Film Journal states that:
“Actually, summarizing the film's plot was pretty useless. The story is mostly an excuse to pack a lot of stupid stuff in the film. And trust me, it's hilarious! This is the debut of writers-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the madcap geniuses behind the smash hit "There's Something About Mary". Though this earlier effort ain't as daring as "Mary", you can still recognize the brothers' taste for lowbrow, gross-out humor. The film is not all that well crafted, but the cast is awesome. Jeff Daniels is more thought of as a serious actor, but he can also play a moron and make you laugh your balls off. But no one's gonna deny that this is Jim Carrey's film. I must have seen the film three or four times by now, and Carrey still makes me piss my pants in this film. The guy truly is a genius at physical comedy. Few comedians can make you laugh this much with just a facial expression or something. The two of them and the Farrellys make "Dumb & Dumber" terrific entertainment.”
Chris Hicks (wow another chris ?!), another film critic gets too specific and talks about how the movie is full of urine. In his review, he states that:
“Please forgive me for getting too specific in the following paragraph — my intention is not to make you ill, but to inform you of just how disgusting it gets.
This is a movie that expects its big laughs to come from diarrhea, frozen snot, flatulence and urine . . . lots of urine. There's urine in the background, as a wino faces a wall; there's urine in beer bottles, imbibed by a foolish highway patrolman; there's urine during a motorbike ride, just because they don't want to stop for a few moments . . . well, you get the idea. But the film's worst moment — and there are many in the "worst" competition here — comes when Carrey pours a laxative in Daniels' drink and a few moments later, Daniels drops his pants in a bathroom, sits on a commode and makes noise for what seems like forever.
This virtually laugh-less movie makes rude junior high school pranks seem positively sophisticated.”
Hicks lays light on the “abundance of vulgar gags, as well as violence, profanity and some partial nudity” that can be witnessed in this movie and talks about the aspects of this movie that relate directly to “gross-out humor” i.e. disgusting elements made use of to achieve humor ( according to Mr. Wiki P.).
I think that my point is clear. It doesn’t matter if the Movie does well at the box office or not. It is no longer a “factor” that can lead individuals to either like or dislike the movie. It’s all about Opinion. Not only does this apply to slapstick films such as Dumb and Dumber, but to each and every movie out there.
Andrew Keen, in his book The Cult of the Amateur, states that “What the Web 2.0 revolution is really delivering is superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.”
If I was to apply what keen says to the world of movies, I think that Keen’s statement would fall short. Can there actually be considered judgment if you talk about reviewing a movie? Different opinions are bound to come from different people. Isn’t each and every living being entitled to his or her own opinion regarding a particular entity (be it micro or macro..heck be it anything ?). How would one define “considered judgment” in this case? Where does this considered judgment come from? Heck, is there anything out there in today, for which there is considered judgment? To answer this, one would have to go back and define considered judgment.
Dumb & Dumber. I liked the movie. Did you? Not Necessarily. Different writers considered different aspects of the movie and judged it according to those “considered entities”. This applies to each and every film out there.
Each and every movie out there has different aspects to it. Different writers consider different aspects of the movie that they review & hence their reviews differ. There exists a form of “Considered Judgment” depending on each and every review.
As I said earlier,
The world is no longer “united”.
I might've been kinda abstract in expressing what i wanted to.
highAgain~ out.
1 comment:
All I really have to say that "Dumb and Dumber" is one of the greatest movies of all time. Although it isn't extremely clever, it is what you call "slap-stick humor" and that kind of comedy gets me every time. Obviously, there are a lot of people who also enjoy this type of comedy because movie like this tend to do well. "Dumb and Dumber" will live on forever.
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