Dumbest

Scraping the bottom of the barrel of entertainment:

TROPIC THUNDER (2008) (B-minus) - I had higher hopes for this, but maybe it just hasn't aged as well as some would have liked. Maybe it was ahead of its time, and now it's not.

Ben Stiller co-wrote, directed and stars in this story of four arrogant Hollywood actors shooting a Vietnam movie who end up getting dropped into the middle of nowhere and forced to actually fight their way out of trouble.

Robert Downey Jr. is beyond inspired as the Australian Oscar-winning Method adherent who undergoes pigmentation surgery to portray a stereotypical '70s-era black Army sergeant, refusing at all times to break character. Stiller plays his typical pompous gasbag, and Jack Black is the unabashed star of a series of fart films whose character in the fictional movie is a loudmouthed Southern flat-top. As always, a little of Jack Black goes a long way. Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson (the guy who's in those "Percy Jackson" films that commonly clog up several HBO channels) don't add much to the raunch. Even our guy Danny McBride struggles for laughs as an out-of-control special-effects expert. Steve Coogan, as the fictional film's director, isn't around long enough to make an impression.

This has its inspired moments, all of which make you yearn for the old Fox TV "Ben Stiller Show," because they work as small skits or great gags, but they don't cohere enough to sustain a 107-minute film. In fact, the opening montage -- faux theatrical trailers for each of the actor's movies or commercial projects (Jackson's character, Alpa Chino (ugh), pitches a drink called Booty Sweat and a power bar called "Bust-a-Nut" (yuk-yuk)) -- is more compact and clever than the actual movie. Stiller's character is still living down his embarrassing bid for Oscar glory, "Simple Jack," in which he plays a mentally handicapped boy that makes "I Am Sam" look like "My Left Foot." But again, that plays like a stale leftover from the "Stiller Show." (And is it weird or clever that Stiller hides behind his characters to mock a "retard" or have an actor appear in black face?)

While this one's often a lot of fun, you can't really consider this a cogent movie (within a movie).

DUMB & DUMBER TO (D+) - We're not embarrassed at all to announce to the world that the original "Dumb and Dumber" makes us laugh just about as much as any other movie out there. The fact that Jeff Daniels' career survived that bathroom scene (easier than it did "The Newsroom") is one of the meta-marvels of Hollywood lore.

But, damn, this parade of groaners from six (!) writers and two mugging middle-aged actors (looking like the Stooges at the end of their careers) is painful to watch. Doody and dick humor abound, with none of the inspired idiocy of the Farrelly Brothers' original. Farting with the car windows up? Oh, hilarious.

"Dumb and Dumber," in 1994 (!), was a ridiculous debut from the writer/directors. They followed it up with their best film, "There's Something About Mary." It's been hit-and-miss on a downhill slide ever since. ("Stuck On You," from 2003, was their last watchable and enjoyable film.) Here, we had low expectations, and still it fell short.

A few jokes land from the two idiots. The plot revolves around Harry (Daniels) searching for the daughter he never knew; meanwhile, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) starts crushing on the young lady (a seriously unfunny Rachel Melvin). The Farrellys find it hilarious to have blacks and Asians speak with a Canadian accent or to have a sassy nursing home resident trick one of the boys into pleasuring her under the covers.

We'll never know whether I would find the original so damn gut-busting if it came along in 2015, at my advanced age. But it was funny then. And the sequel is not funny now.