It's the 1980s. Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne are seen by many as 'special', and become best friends as soon as they meet. Principal Collins and his lover, lunch lady Ms. Heller, want to make as much money out of scams, and their next idea is to create a special needs class. Ms. Heller is the teacher, and they have assigned Harry and Lloyd to round the special students up. School News Reporter Jessica is suspicious though, and desperately tries to find out the truth, even if it means gaining Harry and Lloyd's help.....The original was an exceptional comedy, one that really paved the way in comedy for almost a decade. Before that, we were bombarded with spoofs with a varying degree of quality.Ten years on from the original, we have this worthless piece, which is nothing more than to milk as much money from kids who saw the original at home. What we have here is two actors doing impressions of the actors, rather than the charachters, and recycling jokes from the original, so people will think of that film and maybe get confused into thinking that this is any good.It's pretty awkward to watch at times, especially when we have decent actors such as Guzman, Rogers, and Levy actually trying their hardest to put in a decent performance.Maybe as a T.V series, this could have worked, but no, the makers knew what they were doing, they knew that the original was and still is a cult comedy, and people were going to fall for it.

There's a number of jokes that are funny in this movie and I don't know why people criticize it. I mean like what the heck did you expect a masterpiece? For what it was the film is at least loyal to the characters who are both stupid and you don't know who's stupider. This is way better than that terrible sequel made last year, where all the jokes were based on how gross it could be. I never liked the idea of prequels but this film I think did it fine. The only thing I think would of been a wiser idea is had Harry take Lloyd's role of being the one to tell him what to do. I mean Harry is a leader in the original but here he is more of like a sidekick. I really liked the scene, "There's Sh.t everywhere!" The only things I wish they changed were Harry and Lloyd's roles and also maybe add a funnier climax but it's overall alright! I can't believe people hate this but the sequel made last year is rated higher! I think these rating should be switched! I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Atrocity aptly epitomizes "Jack Frost" director Troy Miller's "Dumb and Dumber" prequel "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd" with Eric Christian Olsen cast as Lloyd Christmas and Derek Richardson as Harry Dunne. This lackluster comic melodrama provides us with the back story about how Lloyd and Harry met in 1986 and became lifelong pals. Indeed, we learn that the two collide with each other on the sidewalk on their way to school, and Lloyd's tooth broke and stuck into Harry's forehead. They wind up in a 'special needs' class at their high school that a crooked principal, Principal Collins (Eugene Levy of "American Pie, and his squeeze cafeteria supervisor Ms. Heller (Cheri Oteri of "Liar Liar"), plan to rip off the school so they can relocate to a tropical climate. Of course, the misfits win, but tyro scribe Robert Brenner and Miller don't pull off anything as imaginative as the Farrelly brother did. The most grotesque scene has poor Harry at his girlfriend's house with feces all over himself and Jessica's father Bob Saget of "America's Funniest Home Videos" howling in agony. The funniest scene is the opener when Harry is born and we see life from his perspective looking out of his mom's womb. Naturally, Harry wants nothing to do with life and refuses to accommodate the pediatrician. The biggest future star who is cast as one of the misfits that gravitate toward Lloyd and Harry is none other than "Transformers'" star Shia LaBeouf. Happily, Eric Christian Olsen, who does resemble what a young Lloyd might look like, went on to better things in the CBS-TV "NCIS Los Angeles." Writer & director Miller puts our harebrained heroes through their paces, but we don't feel for them like we felt for their grown-up counterparts. "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd" didn't make enough bucks at the box office and the "Dumb and Dumber" franchise would languish another eleven years before the Farrelly brothers revived it. Only completists will want to waste their time on this nonsense. Several bigger names are lost in the mishmash, among them Luis Guzman was Lloyd's janitor father. For the record, the Felcher twins show up at the end.

And now we know how it all began. In 1986, Harry has been home-schooled by his widowed mother and doesn't have a clue about how the outside world works. Lloyd lives at the school he attends because his father Ray (at least I think that's his father, because Harry doesn't appear Hispanic) is the janitor. But Lloyd doesn't get that he doesn't have to catch the bus: he's already AT school.If not for that one little detail Harry and Lloyd might never have met. The two immediately become friends and Lloyd explains to Harry what he needs to know about attending a real school. They don't really comprehend that the minute they arrive at school, Turk and the other cool kids are actually bullying them.And then there is Jessica, the cute girl in the tight sweater and the really short skirt. She's really nice but the guys misinterpret her behavior, as she has a boyfriend and really wants something from them.Principal Collins and lunch lady Ms. Heller are having a secret affair, financed by the money they embezzle from the school. And they will really have a chance to clean up: Mr. Moffitt, a successful man who was once a "special needs" student (hey, Forrest Gump did it) will give $100,000 to any school which develops its own special needs program.Amazingly, except for Harry and Lloyd, this school has no actual special needs students. Every school has them and it should be no problem. But Ms. Heller will teach the class and Harry and Lloyd will recruit the students. They're not too bright and don't quite understand that some of these kids are not "special", such as the football team's mascot who is not really part horse. However, the "special" kids will get out of doing real work, so they quickly agree to be part of the scam. Among the special kids are Carl, Toby, Lewis, and of course Turk. A Chinese exchange student our heroes call Ching Chong must be special too because she has trouble with English.Jessica is suspicious and goes in search of answers about the alleged special needs class. Meanwhile, photos are taken in a fake classroom actually used for computer classes. But the class actually meets in a shed used by Ray. Their big project will be a parade float.Jessica and Harry become friends, and he meets her parents in what turns out to be a hilarious disaster, with Lloyd failing miserably as a Cyrano de Bergerac, while Harry forgets about the chocolate bar in his back pocket and later sits on the hot radiator in Jessica's room. If you love bathroom humor, what comes next is a classic moment. And if that's not enough, Harry has another unfortunate incident with Jessica's father involving mud.There's another great gag involving frozen drinks, "it", and complete ignorance of exactly how gasoline works. Also an exciting car chase.So will Jessica find out the truth? Will the villains in this adventure get what's coming to them?No, this doesn't live up to the classic original "Dumb and Dumber", but if you don't set your expectations too high ... it's still not that great. Well, there are plenty of good moments.Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen both do a reasonably good job. So do Eugene Levy and Cheri Oteri. No one's winning awards here but you have to laugh at these people.Rachel Nichols is pleasant and intelligent, and good-looking in the style of Gwyneth Paltrow.Bob Saget is perfectly normal as Jessica's father until ... you know. And then he really shines.Dana Gould has a great scene as the former special needs student.Other enjoyable performances come from Brian Posehn, the store clerk, and Michelle Krusiec as Ching Chong.If you're looking for quality, you're not going to find it here. If you enjoy juvenile humor about losers in high school, this just may be for you.I know I liked it.