Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #26 Dumb & Dumber
Box Office: $127.2 Million
Oscar Nominations: None
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 82/100
Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4)
I don't know if we'll see someone become a comedy superstar in one calendar year again like we did with Jim Carrey in 1994. Fuck even becoming a star. We might never see a comedian have a year like this again:
2/4/1994: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is released. Number 1 in box office for 3 weekends.
7/29/1994: The Mask is released. Number 1 in box office the weekend it was released.
12/16/1994: Dumb & Dumber is released. It was Number 1 at the box office for 4 straight weekends.
Oh yeah, Carrey was also in 13 episode of In Living Color in 1994 as it was finished its run on FOX. Before 1994, that's the only thing people really knew Carrey from. He had been on Star Search and in a couple movies in the 80's (most notably Peggy Sue Got Married) but on January 1st, 1994, he was the guy who played Fire Marshal Bill on In Living Color. It's wild that he became perhaps the biggest movie star in the world at that time in a mere 12 months.
Jeff Daniels had a pretty great 1994 too. He was also in Speed and as good as he was in that, he was even better here. Daniels keeps up with Carrey beat for beat. That's so much harder than it looks and he makes it seamless. You can't think of Lloyd without thinking of Harry. Jeff Daniels is right there with Carrey, Donald Sutherland and Kevin Bacon as the best actors never nominated for an Oscar.
You watch Dumb & Dumber today and it still holds up just as well as it did when it came out. Stupid is always funny. It's the same thing with Stepbrothers. Two guys that are idiots with a wild amount of confidence was funny 30 years, it's funny now and it'll still be funny 30 years from now.
I knew this was coming up next so I didn't spend too much time on the Farrelly Brothers who consistently made the funniest movies before the Apatow movies would take over in the next decade. It's nuts that this masterpiece is their first movie. Their first three movies are by far their best (this, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary) but a few of the other movies aren't terrible. It's also very hard to keep up a comedic fastball that this great. It seems easier for old dramatic directors like Scorsese or Tarantino to keep putting out great movies and that's unfair because they are such better filmmakers. But don't sell the comparison completely short. The Farrelly Brothers were the biggest force in comedy for a decade.
There are other comedies on this list (and even yet to come) but there is no comedy from the 1990's that will have a longer shelf life than Dumb & Dumber. The entire world changed since this came out and them thinking that their parrots head just fell off will always be funny. The most annoying sound in the world will always be funny. Harry shitting will always be funny.
I wouldn't want to live in a world where we couldn't laugh at these idiots.
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks