Mid-life crises, social media, gun-control, school lockdown procedures and good old suburban angst are all fair game for hyper-reality analysis in Mom & Dad, a post-millennial horror/satire about parents unexplainedly*1 attacking and killing their own children. It's also bloody good fun. From the faux-70s title sequence, the audience knows it's in for a movie which has plenty to say without taking itself too seriously. And while this sounds like an awkward balance, that's not the one which causes the biggest problems.
Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair star as Brent and Kendall Ryan, the eponymous couple, parents of two school-age children, Carly (Anne Winters) and Josh (Zackary Arthur), who spend the day watching news reports of the apparently motiveless mass-attacks with increasing concern until they themselves are driven by the same inexplicable urge. It's at this point that the film switches between the adults and the kids as their home becomes a bloodstained battleground. There have been plenty of horror movies about teenage paranoia over the years of course, but writer/director Brian Taylor's feature is one which tells its tale (at least partly) from the parents' point of view; they don't turn into mindless zombies and have no inclination to kill other people's children - just their own.
Unfortunately, while the in-universe rules of this intriguing setup are established loosely, the film soon becomes so pre-occupied with the mechanics of a reverse home-invasion that they're all but forgotten about. Setpieces accelerate nicely, promising huge pay-offs but then pull back to another buildup elsewhere, and a plot device with subconsciously-detectable TV signals is hinted at*2, before being discarded altogether.
Of course, since almost everyone on-screen goes nuts before Nic Cage, their escalating behaviour just sets the bar for him - a bar he smashes through as only he can, with unhinged ease. Like a honey badger that's been sleep-deprived, force-fed Sunny D and mescaline then let loose in a moshpit. But even this comes in fits and starts, as explanatory dialogue and flashbacks continue to play a part well into the third act. When the ending abruptly arrives, so little is wrapped up that it feels like the budget and schedule ran out simultaneously (even moreso than in Red State), and Taylor has spend 75 minutes writing cheques he's realised he can't cash*3.
The limits of 15-certification, a short run-time and erratic pacing hold Mom & Dad back from realising its full, glorious batshit potential. Although it's still enormous fun in the meanwhile.
Plus, someone gets attacked with a meat-tenderiser on the front lawn, so...
I suspect you'll definitely get the most out of this on a big screen.
A buy-er, once it comes down to a reasonable price.
Not particularly.
Not at all.
Not a one.
Level 2: This film's got that Selma Blair in it, and she was in 1999's Cruel Intentions along with Sarah Michelle 'Seventh Sister' Gellar.
*1 By which I mean it's left unexplained, but more on that later. [ BACK ]
*2And this only stands out because modern televisions don't generally display white-noise. [ BACK ]
*3 And for the record, that fire would have fed back into the gas-supply and taken out the entire house. Obviously. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Dumb And Dumber To Cert: 15 / 109 mins / Dir. Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Ah, 1994. It seems like only weeks ago that my best friend and I sat in the front row of Canterbury ABC cinema watching Dumb And Dumber, each working our way steadily through a bottle of wine*1, and laughing uproariously along to Jim Carrey at the height of his game. I had a coffee this evening, and I didn't laugh quite that much. Perhaps this is a lesson.
Set twenty years after the events of the first movie, Dumb And Dumber To sees our heroes reunited and embarking on a road-trip to track down Harry's recently discovered long-lost daughter, Penny; so that Harry can try and convince her to be a kidney donor for him, and so that Lloyd can woo her into marrying him. All they have to do is meet up with Penny at the KEN science expo in El Paso where she's due to give a speech on behalf of her genius adoptive-father. What could possibly go wrong?
With the hapless pair taking a cross-country trip to seek out an attractive young woman whilst becoming embroiled in a botched crime-caper, the film is a thoroughly shameless rehash of what's gone before. It's carried off, for the most part, by the chemistry between Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey, and they still play the physical gags to perfection after all these years. Sadly, even these two are frequently derailed by a script which is still in its second-draft, peppered with verbal jokes which don't quite work for the characters delivering them, and even a few toe-curling callbacks to the 1994 original*2.
All in all the film sort-of-works, coasting largely on the charm of having Harry and Lloyd back together. But this is a film that the Farrelly brothers should have put out in the late 1990's, when a lot of its more off-colour humour and naivety could have been forgiven by being caught up in the whirlwind of delivering an anticipated sequel. Sadly, this isn't the case in 2014; this film didn't need to be made*3. That is was is a testament to the continued bankability of Carrey, Daniels and the Farrellys, but while it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of, I doubt the film will be headlining many of the cast's CVs in the near future.
Extra points though, for a Hot Fuzz-level cameo by Bill Murray.
For all my moaning and over-analysis though, I rather enjoyed Dumb And Dumber To. It's certainly got a higher hit-rate than certain othercomedies this year, and as transparently unnecessary as it is, the film comes from a far less cynical place than its stablemates.
But I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be improved by a bottle of wine…
Well, it sets the tone, certainly.
Mostly, although not always as much as I should have, I suspect.
Didn't hear one, but the volume in Screen Four was set to Deafening™ this evening, and there are a couple of scenes where I may have missed one. I'll go with no, though.
Can we stop putting Rob Riggle in things now, though? He's not as good as he seems to think he is...
*1 They were more innocent times. Well, they were times when cinema staff were less inclined to search customers on the way into the auditorium, certainly.
*2 Basically just Jim Carrey saying a few key phrases from the first film, occasionally, with very little reason or context; the most basic and insulting type of callback.
*3 The most worrying moment is the film's end credits which feature side-by-side clips of the first film and the one you've just watched, essentially reminding you of how fantastic Dumb And Dumber was and also that you haven't enjoyed this one quite as much. Or in the case of many critics, anywhere near as much, apparently.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
