Me, Myself, and Irene

Those pesky Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby (along with friend Mike Cerrone) are back with Me, Myself, and Irene, the latest gross-out epic that again lowers the bar for future movies. It started with Dumb & Dumber, then moved on to There's Something About Mary. Other movies followed, like American Pie and Road Trip. Now, the Farrelly's can reclaim their title as kings of low brow humor. Jim Carrey (Man on the Moon, The Truman Show) also rejoins the Farrellys (he was in Dumb & Dumber) and makes a return to comedy, the genre which launched his career.

Carrey is Charlie; a Rhode Island State Trooper who has a large problem named Hank. Hank is Charlie's repressed anger, and is finally emerging. Charlie is the town pushover, afraid of confrontation and everything else. While Charlie is polite, considerate and king, Hank is rude, macho and always ready to pick a fight. Charlie's wife left him for a black midget limo driver, and left him with three children (incidentally, also black, which everyone notices except for Charlie). He finally snaps, switching personalities when something aggravates him. Into this equation pops Irene (Renee Zellweger, The Bachelor, A Price Above Rubies). Some unscrupulous characters are after Irene, who may or may not know something about their shady dealings. Charlie is to escort Irene to New York, but things go awry, and they end up on the run.

The Farrellys are under the expectation that they need to exceed their prior efforts. So they scripted Me, Myself, and I to do this and more. Nearly everything imaginable gets their unique treatment. Midgets, albinos, anal sex, defecation, no one and nothing is safe from mockery. The difference, as strange as it sounds, is that most of it is good-natured. There's Something About Mary was popular because of its characters - people could identify with them and root for them. Here, Zellweger is whiny, and Carrey is, well, Jim Carrey. His schtick is not that funny, especially after nearly two hours. Regardless, he has legions of fans that will line up to see him contort his face and body into ridiculous gestures, and laugh. Irene and Charlie/Hank are on the run from their enemies, and it gets boring fast. Chris Cooper (American Beauty, The Patriot), one of the best supporting actors around today, wastes his time as one of Irene's antagonists.

There are things that are funny though. The Farrellys have a gift for taking strange things and making them funny. Charlie's kids, Jamaal, Lee Harvey, and Shonte Jr., (Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, and Jerod Mixon, respectively) are hilarious. They are Yale bound, German speaking geniuses, the only truly funny thing in the movie. It is quirkier humor, similar to type present in their last film, Outside Providence, that did not do well at the box office. It's small flashes of humor here and there in Me, Myself, and Irene that redeem it from being really boring. And for people who like to leave when the credits start rolling, keep in mind that there's a little more movie after all the credits are over.

Haro Rates It: Not That Good.
1 hour, 56 minutes, Rated R for sexual content, crude humor, strong language, and some violence.

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