Evan Almighty, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, and Son of the Mask are all considered to rank among the worst comedy movies of all time, and they share one glaring similarity. However, on the surface, the movies seem quite different despite all coming out in the 2000s. For instance, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd stars Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen as two young men with perilously low IQs who become involved in a corrupt principal’s scheme when they transfer from homeschooling to a public high school in the 1980s.
The absurd but more realistic premise of When Harry Met Lloyd feels very different from the other two titles, which both feature supernatural premises. Evan Almighty follows the biblically-themed story of a modern-day man being forced to re-enact the story of Noah’s Ark while the latter follows a family that is thrown into chaos when Loki’s mask gives their dog and infant child supernatural powers. However, both movies feature widely varying tones and casts, as the former title features Oscar winner Morgan Freeman and The Office star Steve Carell while the latter is led by comedian Jamie Kennedy.
Son Of The Mask, Dumb And Dumberer, And Evan Almighty All Failed Without Jim Carrey
All Three Were Follow-Ups To Jim Carrey Movies
In spite of their differences, the major factor that all three titles have in common is that they were follow-ups to Jim Carrey movies in which the iconic comedy movie star did not reprise his original roles. Specifically, they were a prequel to 1994’s Dumb and Dumber, a standalone sequel to 1994’s The Mask, and a spin-off sequel to 2003’s Bruce Almighty. Unlike their predecessors, all three franchise installments were box office disappointments in addition to being widely panned by critics. Below, see a breakdown of how the movies performed both critically and commercially:
Title | RT Score | Budget | Box Office |
|---|---|---|---|
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) | 10% | $19 million | $39.3 million |
Son of the Mask (2005) | 6% | ~$100 million | $59.9 million |
Evan Almighty (2007) | 24% | $175 million | $174.4 million |
While it had the highest gross of the three, at the time, Evan Almighty was the most expensive comedy movie ever made, making it a box office bomb. In fact, generally a movie needs to make between two and two-and-a-half times its budget in order to break even because theaters keep half of ticket sales and publicity costs are not factored into production budgets. Thus, it seems unlikely that even Dumb and Dumberer broke even, in spite of the fact that it was the only member of the trio to earn a worldwide box office gross higher than its budget.
Why Jim Carrey Never Did A Lot Of Sequels (Not Even To His Most Successful Movies)
The Star Tends To Avoid Reprising His Popular Roles
For quite some time, Jim Carrey never made sequels to his own movies, with the lone exception being 1995’s Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. He explained his reasoning for this in a 2017 interview with CinemaBlend in which he described himself as “not a crazy sequel guy.” He described sequels as more of a commercial move than an artistic one, and while he enjoyed returning to certain roles, it was difficult to avoid feeling like he was imitating his own prior work.
When Nature Calls
was a sequel to 1994’s
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
and both movies made back more than six times their budgets at the box office.
It has only been recently that Carrey has relaxed his sequel rule. The first sequel to one of his own movies in which he took part after When Nature Calls was 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To, which reunited him with co-star Jeff Daniels. This marked the first time in 19 years that he had reprised one of his roles in a sequel, though he had originated roles in sequels to other movies including Kick-Ass 2. His return to the Dumb and Dumber movies seems to have opened him up to considering further franchise returns, at least in one particular instance.
Jim Carrey’s Sequels Rule Makes His Sonic The Hedgehog Role Even Better
Jim Carrey Reprised The Role Of Dr. Robotnik
After stepping away from acting for several years, Jim Carrey made his comeback when he joined the Sonic the Hedgehog cast as the iconic video game villain Dr. Robotnik. He later went on to reprise his role from the 2020 movie in its 2022 sequel and is set to return in the upcoming third installment, due on December 20. This will officially make Dr. Robotnik the longest-running role of his movie career.
Carrey may feel a stronger bond to his Sonic the Hedgehog character than the roles he would have reprised [elsewhere]…
While the commercial success of the franchise may have played a role in his decision-making, the fact that he has turned down many similar opportunities in the past would seem to indicate that Carrey may feel a stronger bond to his Sonic the Hedgehog character than the roles he would have reprised in Evan Almighty, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, or Son of the Mask. That factor, combined with the fact that it marked his return to acting after his four-year hiatus, serves to make his return to comic form even sweeter.
Source: CinemaBlend
