It's hard to knock a movie like Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd in that the film sets out to be as stupid as it is. In a sense, it succeeds by casting two relative unknowns in the roles that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels created in the original, Dumb and Dumber (however, one should note that this is not exactly something to be proud of). The prequel gives viewers Eric Christian Olsen (The Hot Chick, Not Another Teen Movie) and newcomer Derek Richardson as younger versions of Carrey and Daniels, and chronicles how they meet (the two literally bump into each other on a street corner, and become fast friends). The casting is the best aspect of Dumb & Dumberer, in that the two bear a striking resemblance to their forebears. Take away the haircut and Olsen still looks extremely different than he normally does, like he's been fasting.

Dumb & Dumberer has Lloyd (Richardson) and Harry (Olsen) unwittingly helping school reporter Jessica (Rachel Nichols, Autumn in New York) try to foil Principal Collins' (Eugene Levy, A Mighty Wind, Bringing Down the House) plans to extort money from the school district. He discovered that the district will provide a large sum of money to each school that has a special needs class. Collins figures that with a bogus special needs class, he can get some extra money and escape to Hawaii. What better idiots to pick for a special needs class than Harry and Lloyd? He allows them to pick their classmates, who agree to participate only because being in special needs means no homework. Jessica is the only person who suspects something is wrong, and asks the moronic duo for help.

Director Troy Miller (The Announcement, Jack Frost) and screenwriter Robert Brenner has everybody doing a bunch of stupid things in an effort to elicit laughs. Stupid comedy can be funny, but here it is not (there are two scenes that made this review chuckle, but that's all). There is a huge line between finding comedy in the antics of two people and wanting to step into the movie and delivering a smackdown to them. The movie isn't exactly bad, it is just very lazy. It is relies upon the original for everything. Instead of trying to do something better or different, Miller just coasts along. Especially when everybody is trying so hard to please fans of the original that they forget to develop any sort of story. This also goes for Nichols, who is a little to perky for her own good. Miller seems to think that throwing a bunch of potty humor sketches together will please people, but it won't.