Dumb and Dumber To

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) – We have it on the authority of Forrest Gump that stupid is as stupid does. And so it proves with the broad comedy sequel “Dumb and Dumber To” (Universal).

Its tiresome dopiness, however, isn’t the main problem with the film: While many of the gags in co-directors (and brothers) Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s lowbrow laffer are merely vulgar, a couple of scenes trigger such deep disgust that the whole can be endorsed for no one.

The script, in which the Farrellys also had a hand, along with four others, reunites Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels), the pair of nitwits whose earlier adventures in idiocy were charted in the 1994 original. Lloyd has spent the interval in a mental asylum pretending to be catatonic as a prolonged practical joke on Harry. But he snaps out of it on hearing that his buddy needs a kidney donor.

Together the friends set off in search of the most likely candidate, Penny (Rachel Melvin), the grown daughter Harry has only just discovered he has. In the process of tracking her down, they get mixed up with her adoptive dad, acclaimed scientist Dr. Pinchelow (Steve Tom), his scheming trophy wife, Adele (Laurie Holden), and their shifty handyman, Travis (Rob Riggle).

Dr. Pinchelow has invented a mysterious device with world-altering potential, the vastly profitable rights to which he plans to sign away. Predictably, Adele and Travis have other, less noble, ideas.

Given the adolescent pitch of the movie, it’s hardly surprising that sex is a steady theme. But the utterly debased manner in which that subject is treated via the knuckleheads’ interaction with an elderly lady in a nursing home and by way of a perverse childhood memory should warn off all self-respecting prospective viewers.

The film contains pervasive sexual and much scatological humor, some of it involving bestiality and other aberrations, brief irreverence, fleeting rear and partial nudity, at least one use each of profanity and the F-word and intermittent crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

No Good Deed

By Kurt Jensen, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) – Were it not for the disturbing parallel with recent domestic violence cases involving professional athletes, “No Good Deed” (Screen Gems) would have no reason to attract attention.

It’s a conventionally plotted thriller about a violent escaped convict who terrifies a household. Its late story “twist” is easily detected early on, leaving the film, directed by Sam Miller and written by Aimee Lagos, as stale and predictable as its dark and stormy night.

As it opens, Colin (Idris Elba), convicted of one murder but a suspect in five others, is denied parole in Tennessee. On the trip back to prison, he kills two guards and heads to the Atlanta home of his unfaithful ex-fiancée (Kate del Castillo) with murderous intent.

He wrecks his vehicle on a rain-slicked highway during his getaway, and ends up ringing the doorbell at the home of Terri (Taraji B. Henson), her husband, Jeffrey (Henry Simmons), and their two small children.

Jeffrey has escaped husbandly tasks for what he calls a “golfing trip,” leaving Terri alone with the children before she takes pity on the soggy killing machine who asks to use her phone to call a tow truck. As a former prosecutor who specialized in domestic violence cases, she ought to know better, of course.

What could possibly go wrong here, even with chirpy neighbour Meg (Leslie Bibb) dropping by?

Colin, in the manner of all abusers, alternates between predatory and protective behaviour, but the film teaches no lessons in how to cope with any of it. Instead, there’s only a string of bleak killings set in a distasteful framework.

The film contains gun and physical violence, frequent rough and crass language and fleeting profanities. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) – Positive values, including altruism, are highlighted in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” (Lionsgate).

Together with the absence from the film of most problematic content – a good deal of stylized combat aside – those upright ethics make this sequel a worry-free choice for the parents of targeted teens.

The third instalment of a four-part series based on best-selling novels by Suzanne Collins, the movie also offers satisfying – and occasionally stirring – action played out against the backdrop of the same disordered futuristic society in which its predecessors were set.

For those who are new to Panem, the dystopian North American nation that serves as that setting, here’s the (raw) deal: A cosseted urban elite, led by President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), rules oppressively over a group of outlying districts populated by downtrodden workers. Each year, some of the children of the underclass are compelled to participate in the brutal survival tournament of the title – from which normally only one victor emerges alive.

Having been subjected to the games twice – first in a normal round, later as part of an all-star version – franchise heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) has become a huge celebrity, not least because she managed to subvert the rules of the contest on both occasions. Her latest act of defiance, showcased at the end of the last film, coincided with, and helped spark, the outbreak of a rebellion against Snow’s regime.

The opening of this chapter finds Katniss holed up in a huge bunker that serves as the headquarters of the uprising. It leaders – President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and former tourney supervisor-turned-rebel Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are intent on using Katniss as the inspiring symbol of their movement.

Though Katniss is initially reluctant to take on that role, exposure to the ruthless devastation Snow’s forces have inflicted on the area where she used to live convinces her to play her part. But things become complicated when her sweetheart, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), whom Snow is holding captive, becomes a tool in the president’s propaganda campaign aimed at stamping out the revolution.

As scripted by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, the romantic entanglements in director Francis Lawrence’s sci-fi adventure are so chaste that a single kiss between Katniss and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), the lad who pines for her, takes on great significance. And Gale, it turns out, is not only well behaved, but heroically selfless in the pursuit of Katniss’ welfare.

For those willing to buy into the mythos behind it all, the progress of the revolt in which Katniss finds herself caught up makes for an invigorating ride. As for unimpressed holdouts, they can pass the time monitoring the dialogue – in vain – for any hint of profanity or other verbal trespasses.

The film contains some bloodless but potentially disturbing violence. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.