Let’s face it. If you’re a fan of the Brothers Farrelly, Bobby and Peter, you’ll love "Me, Myself & Irene." They’ve added flavor to tasteless jokes, given substance to childish pranks, and made sophomoric humor palatable to a wide audience with the gut busting "Dumb and Dumber," the underrated "Kingpin" and the alternately sweet and hilarious "There’s Something About Mary." "Me, Myself & Irene" is a flagrantly politically incorrect, bawdy, live action cartoon that uses props like life size sex toys and mother’s milk to make fun of everything from dwarfs and serial killers to schizophrenia and Mensa.

Milquetoast Charlie Baileygates is a white Rhode Island highway patrolman with three brilliant black sons who lace their intellectual and high tech lingo with Richard Pryor influenced expletives. He thinks they’re great kids and they adore him. For years Charlie lets people walk all over him. His wife takes a hike. His neighbor’s dog craps on his lawn. And his friends continue to flaunt traffic violations in his face. Charlie doesn’t have the heart to give them tickets. For years, Charlie takes it…and takes it…and takes it…until he can’t take IT anymore. Charlie goes schizo and Hank - his suppressed dark side - takes over. Enter Irene. She is a golf course employee up to her eyebrows in trouble with some racketeers. When the FBI get involved, Charlie/Hank has to escort her back to the scene of the crime in upstate New York. Charlie falls in love with her and Hank lusts after her The bad guys are after them, and the good guys are after the bad guys.

The thin plot of "Me, Myself & Irene" provides the pregnant pauses between Jim Carrey’s customized sight gags, jokes, and physical comedy. Most of the movie’s punch lines are in the TV trailer, but the build up in the movie adds to their hilarity. To say any more is to cut the wind out of the movie’s comic sails. Surprisingly, Rene Zellweiger, as Irene, proves to be the perfect foil to Jim Carey’s loose-as-a-goose performance. The charm of the movie - yes there is some degree of charm - comes from her willingness to accept both Charlie and Hank as the flip sides of the same coin. Will Charlie/Hank ever resolve his (their) conflict and get back together to win the girl? Or can Irene learn to live with Charlie’s dilemma? The one thing that really holds up through all the mayhem, and for my money, makes the movie, is the genuine depth of feeling between Charlie and his kids played riotously by Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon, and Mongo Brownlee.

On another note, there is a striking similarity between the comedy of Jim Carey and the Jerry Lewis of yesteryear. Like Lewis before him. Jim Carey has the screen presence and comic chops to carry a movie much the same way Lewis did in movies like "The Disorderly Orderly," "The Bellboy" and "The Errand Boy." Their logic took a backseat to pratfalls, sight gags, and physical comedy of its star, much like "Me Myself & Irene."

Copyright 2000

"Bigger Than Life" (1956) - Star James Mason produced this winner about a high school teacher who gets hooked on new and experimental hormones that subject him to violent mood swings. Directed by Nicholas Ray who made "Rebel Without a Cause" the year before. Terrific picture!

"All of Me" (1984) - The spirit of millionairess Lily Tomlin enters the body of lawyer Steve Martin and he has to duel with his/her inner spirit for control of his body throughout the film to catch the guy who killed her - just like the scenes with Jim Carrey as Charlie & Hank. This is one of may all time favorites. Directed with the sure hand of Carl Reiner.

"The Nutty Professor" (1963) - I’d go with this original Jerry Lewis version over the remake with Eddie Murphy for the reasons stated above - the more than striking similarity between Jerry Lewis’ physical comedy and Jim Carrey’s. Jerry wrote, produced, directed and starred in this Jeckyl and Hyde serio-comedy that turns the nerdy title character into a narcissistic ladies’ man named Buddy Love. P.S. This is actually more conceptual than funny.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" - Take your pick from the three different versions that have stood the test of time from Robert Louis Stephenson’s classic short story about a man’s search for his inner self and the emergence of his dark side.

1 - (1920) - John Barrymore is the good doctor in this classy silent that first appeared on TV in a cut version on the short lived TV series called Silents Please.

2 - (1932) - Frederic March won an Oscar for the title role. With Miriam Hopkins.

3 - (1941) - Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman star in the version most often shown on TV over the years. More psychological than creepy.

"Three Faces of Eve" (1957) - Why have two personalities when you can have three? -Joanne Woodward won an Oscar as the woman who led three distinct lives, each separate from the other. Based on an actual case about a woman who presumably had more than three personalities but like the classic "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949) had to limit the story to speed up the story. Somewhat dated by the data available today on resultant multiple personalities from child abuse but Joanne is still fun to watch. Lee J. Cobb is her doctor and David Wayne her bewildered husband.