DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD
An unfunny, crude prequel best left unwatched.
Should You Watch It?
The source review’s answer is clear: this is a one-star comedy with a −3 Family Content rating. Its slapstick premise and caper plot are predictable, and the review describes the humor as painfully unfunny rather than entertaining.
The content is also excessive. The film includes gross-out humor, many crude sexual innuendoes, about 37 obscenities and profanities, a sexual fantasy about women kissing each other, and a message portraying homeschooling negatively. The source finds no coherent message to redeem these choices.
You should skip it. The review specifically says the film is worthy of ignoring unless you have a strong craving for this kind of humor.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESSet in 1986 at the Providence, Rhode Island, high school where Harry and Lloyd grew up, this prequel shows how the two meet and become friends.
Their slapstick partnership soon draws them into a scheme involving a greedy, inept principal and his lunch lady girlfriend. The pair are sent through the school looking for students for a special needs class, eventually discovering that they have been duped.
Is It Any Good?
One star means the source review finds very little entertainment value here. The humor is described as an uncomfortable failure, with the movie’s Three Stooges-style slapstick continuing for all 82 minutes.
The plot is predictable, the comedy is not highbrow, and the film falls far below the earlier work of the Farrelly brothers, according to the review. Even a visible black-ink makeup mark on Lloyd’s tooth becomes an example of the film’s poor execution.
The Worldview
The review says the movie has no coherent message. It describes a pagan worldview, depicted homosexual content and innuendo, and a politically correct attack on homeschooling.
The film presents Harry and Lloyd as unwitting participants in a scheme to embezzle money from a scholarship fund, while the source says embezzling and deceit are rebuked. But the review objects to the suggestion that Harry became the way he did because of homeschooling, calling that a politically correct message.
The film also includes sexual fantasy, depicted lesbianism, implied fornication, and homosexual jokes. These elements, together with the crude humor and profanity, leave no clear moral center in the source’s assessment.
Scripture calls believers to reject deceit: “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another” (Leviticus 19:11).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Pagan worldview, depicted homosexual content and innuendo, and politically correct attack on homeschooling; about 24 obscenities, 13 light profanities, passing gas, and people think gobs of chocolate and mud are feces; slapstick violence includes teenagers run into one another, dog chases one character, football player runs into goalpost and a wall, explosion, car crashes, hitting heads, crotch hittings, and slappings; depicted lesbianism, implied fornication, passionate kissing, birthing scene, and much sexual innuendo, including homosexual jokes; female cleavage, rear male nudity, and women in bikinis; alcohol use; smoking; and, embezzling and deceit rebuked. GENRE: Numskull Comedy PaPa HoHo PCPC LLL VV SS N A D M
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film’s scheme involves embezzling and deceit, which the content section says are rebuked. Why does God care about honesty even when dishonesty appears profitable?
Leviticus 19:11 · Ephesians 4:25The review objects to the film’s portrayal of homeschooling. How should Christians examine messages about education instead of accepting a movie’s assumptions?
Acts 17:11 · Proverbs 18:17The film uses sexual jokes and innuendo for comedy. How can our entertainment shape what we consider normal or harmless?
Philippians 4:8 · Ephesians 5:3–4The review finds the comedy unfunny and the content excessive. How can discernment help us decide not only what we can watch, but what is worth our time?
1 Corinthians 10:23 · Psalm 101:3The Final Word
This prequel offers predictable slapstick, crude sexual humor, and excessive language without a coherent message. The source review’s judgment is straightforward: SKIP IT. Choose another film for your family instead:
