Dumb and Dumberer
When Harry Met Lloyd
2 out of 5 stars
R E V I E W   B Y   R I C H   C L I N E
when harry met lloyd I doubt that I'm the only person who thought that the Farrelly Brothers' boneheaded 1994 comedy didn't need a prequel. But nearly a decade later we have this. Well surprise: It's not that bad! It's 1986 now and Harry (Richardson) is finally ready for real school after a life home-schooling with his mother (Rogers). On his first day he meets Lloyd (Olsen), the son of the school janitor (Guzman), and their sheer goofiness inspires the school principal (Levy) to a new scam: He'll create a special needs programme and pocket the state funding to run off with his mistress (Oteri), the lunch lady who serves as teacher for Harry, Lloyd and their crew of apparent misfits. But they of course are much more than Principal Collins bargained for.

OK forget the plot. It's irrelevant. The only reason anyone will go see this is for the poo and fart jokes, and there are plenty of those. What no one expects is the fact that the writers actually come up with some wonderfully comic moments, and they fill the script with genuinely witty one-liners between the unfunny low-brow stuff. And the cast is better than you expect as well. Besides Olsen and Richardson eerily channelling Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels (as well as creating their own, more sympathetic versions of the characters), Oteri is hilarious as the sassy-but-dim conniver. And as with almost every film he's made, Levy is the funniest thing here, creating yet another memorably evil cinematic principal. And perhaps the nicest surprise is that this film stands completely on its own as a sweet and likeable teen comedy--albeit a very stupid one! All it lacks is the Carrey/Daniels star power. But it's far funnier than most bigger-name comedies out there at the moment.

cert 12 themes, language, vulgarity 10.Jun.03

dir Troy Miller
scr Robert Brenner, Troy Miller
with Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson, Eugene Levy, Cheri Oteri, Rachel Nichols, Mimi Rogers, Luis Guzman, Elden Henson, Josh Braaten, Bob Saget, Julia Duffy, Lin Shaye
release US/UK 13.Jun.03
NewLine
03/US 1h27

Lloyd and Harry: Olsen and Richardson.

levy
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© 2003 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

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