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