Customer Reviews

Me Myself & Irene [VHS]

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(54)

 

 

Me, Myself, and Irene was the much anticipated follow up to There's Something About Mary. The problem was that when it hit the theaters, the hype had gone, and the movie did not do as well as anyone could have anticipated. The truth is that many moviegoers missed one of Jim Carrey's funniest performances.

Carrey plays the mild mannered Rhode Island Trooper who has a split personality. He is now Hank, and Charlie. He then has to escort a prisoner back to New York so she can pay off a parking ticket. Renee Zellweger does a decent job as the prisoner, but the real laughs come from the over the top performance from Carrey. There are many gags in this film that push what should be done to people, but you are still laughing despite of all that you see.

This film was sadly overlooked in its theatrical run due to other summer films such as Scary Movie, and the horrible Nutty Proffesor II. This film is much better than both of those, and deserves a second look on video and DVD.

If you are a fan of the Farrelly brothers other movies, "King Pin", "There's Something About Mary", and "Dumb and Dumber", then you will really enjoy this movie. The Farrelly brothers and Jim Carrey are a match made in heaven. Their style suits Carrey's, as the movie is full of the physical comedy and sight gags which are Carrey's forte.

This is a pretty funny, though somewhat sophomoric, movie. It is also pretty filthy, at times, and definitely not for the movie goer of delicate sensibilities. There is something to offend just about everyone, so be prepared.

The basic premise of the movie is simple. A Rhode Island state trooper, Charley Baileygates, played by Jim Carrey, marries the prettiest and smartest girl in town. After she gives birth to triplets for whom Charley could not possibly be the father, for reasons obvious to the viewer, she later leaves him for another man, her soul mate and likely father of the triplets. She leaves Charley with the triplets, whom he raises as his own. The cuckolded Charley goes on to become the town joke and a seriously repressed man.

Eighteen years later, he snaps and begins to express his anger through an alternate personality and quintessential bad boy who calls himself Hank. Hank has attitude and plenty of it, and he lets everyone know that he is mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore. Charley's superiors send him to be evaluated, and he is given medication to control his psychiatric disorder.

Enter Irene, played by Rener Zellweger. Charley is asked to escort her to upstate New York where she is ostensibly wanted on a hit and run. Unbeknownst to either of them, she is being hunted down by dirty cops who are looking to silence her, as it is believed that she may have information that could take down her crooked ex boyfriend who is being investigated by the EPA.

During their trip, Hank, Charley, and Irene have a host of advantures, which are often hilarious, as Charley and Hank battle over who will become the dominant personality. The low key Zellweger is a good foil for the rubber faced Carrey's physical comedy. As Charley and Irene are pursued by the dirty cops, the now grown triplets, funny and profane, also add another element, as they go to their father's rescue.

The DVD has something for everyone, as it has a plethora of bonus features. It is a DVD that all Carrey fans should have in their collection.

3.5 stars. This was a stronger movie than I expected. The first hour, I literally had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard. The cow scene, to me, was just priceless. But honestly, I didn't quite understand what Irene was supposed to know and how it involved the characters chasing them and frankly I don't care. This is by no means Carrey's best work, since he was obviously trying to channel Dirty Harry for his Hank character, but he successfully gets me to care about Charlie. His three 'sons' in my opinion were waaay over the top and could have been toned down quite a bit. Zwellger obviously did this film because she was dating Carrey at the time. The results was that she came across more as a prop than a real character and that's remarkable for someone with her talent. The Farrelly brothers' oddball comedy is a hit in most areas which makes it easy to recommend this comedy if you're truely in a goofy mood.

In the recent past, there have been several motion pictures with plots involving split personalities, "The Nutty Professor" among others. "Me, Myself and Irene" is, without a doubt, the funniest, most creative and fresh take on the rare instance where two different types of the same individual are confined to one human body. Peter and Bobby Farrelly used Rhode Island as the setting for the well-executed plot that featured unheard of and hilarious comedic twists. Every unusual thing you couldn't think of, they (Farrelly's) did. As the movie begins, the plot is poured mildly onto the viewer. In a small town in Rhode Island directly north of South America, an honest, by the books police officer who gives 110% day in and day out is thrown a curveball in life due to his painstakingly forgiving personality. When his wife runs off with a dwarf, a line is crossed through the subconscious mind of Charlie (Jim Carrey) and, out of nowhere, an alter ego is born that takes the duty of making up for all the times that Charlie was taken advantage of. He is given the mischevous name Hank, and Charlie has a lack of control over him until he, more or less, fights him. Both halves of Jim Carrey are given the duty of safely escorting Irene (Renee Zellweger) to a court trial across the states, where Charlie and Hank switch places every now and then. Hank causes controversy to castmates in the movie with his role as a perverted and arrogant degenerate. Throughout all of this, Charlie does the right thing by taking care of his three young adult sons, whom have a quality that could not be guessed if you haven't seen or read about this movie. Although it is the funniest movie I have ever seen, it stands as one of the more offensive films that I have watched. Despite a few objectionable scenes, it blows away all of the long-running comedy classics, from "Blazing Saddles" to "Monty Python". As icing on the cake, there are cameo's from a couple of NHL superstars and a smooth looking tennis player.

What the heck is going on with the studios that pull out favorites from their libraries and then proceed to put less content on the Blu-ray discs than they did for the DVD releases of the same films? Seriously, if you are going to put out a library title, make darned sure that you offer up a reason to actually spend the money to upgrade and move to Blu instead of just keeping the DVD release and living with it.

I love this movie. It is wicked, deranged, twisted, warped, and all of the other similar words you could pull from a Roget's thesaurus that mean the same basic thing. It is also insanely funny. Jim Carrey plays Charlie Baileygates, a member of the finest police force known to man. A man who is just too darned nice, and who has let the world treat him as a doormat for far too long. Eventually all of the abuse that Charlie has taken overwhelms him and an split personality arises within Charlie that releases 'Hank' upon the world. Hank is Charlie's mean and wicked alter ego, and thanks to an on screen battle between the two personalities and appearances by Hank at the absolute worst time for Charlie we get to see a riotously funny movie.

Renée Zellweger also stars and adds to the fun in this movie as an individual that Charlie must safely transport on a road trip. While transporting her, Charlie and Hank fight the internal struggle within Charlie to bring his personalities together so he doesn't wind up causing himself or others harm, as well as perhaps losing his dream job working as a Rhode Island state trooper.

The DVD version of the movie is a classic for me. It offers several nice extras, some of which were inexplicably left out of this Blu-ray release. I really wish the studio hadn't gone that route as I'd love to recommend this title for purchase, but rewarding such tactics just seems completely wrong to me. The bare minimum would be to keep everything that was on the DVD, and really customers should expect to get *more* for their money when being asked to 'double dip' on buying these library titles. Getting less is not to be rewarded, so I'd have to say rent this title or get the much less expensive DVD release instead of the Blu-ray here. While the picture quality is better on the Blu-ray, it's not enough of a bump to really make paying for this disc worth it. At least not for me. :-(

I think the Brothers would do well to cast Jim Carrey in more of their movies. I found Dumb and Dumberto be absolutely hilarious and, once again, he has made "Me, Myself and Irene" a truly enjoyable piece of comedy. Without his fabulous physical performance, this film would be reduced to a string of sight gags and toilet humor which we have all seen before in dozens of other movies.

Narrated, in cheesy-fairy-tale style, by Rex Allen Jr., Me, Myself & Irene tells the story of Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey), an exceedingly nice Rhode Island State Trooper. He marries the love of his life only to have her run off with an African-American midget and leave their three racially mixed kids for Charlie to raise. Some sixteen years later, the kids have grown up to be geniuses and Charlie grows up with a problem. You see, as various misfortunes have befallen him over the years, he had adopted a grin-and-bear-it attitude that resulted in a lot of bottled-up anger. All that emotion is now releasing itself in the form of advanced delusionary schizophrenia with narcissistic rage, a.k.a. multiple personality disorder.

While Charlie is gentle and wary of any confrontation, his other personality Hank is exactly the opposite. He spouts insults all over the place and picks fights with everyone he encounters. Charlie's doctor gives him medication that is supposed to suppress Hank, but Charlie leaves it in his hotel room while escorting a pretty girl named Irene (Renee Zellweger) to upstate New York. He also falls in love with Irene and vows to protect her from crooks and corrupt cops who are after her (among them Chris Cooper, fresh off his American Beauty triumph). But not surprisingly, Hank keeps getting in the way.

I know that this movie was not exactly embraced by critics which blows my mind. Seeing that everyone completely adored There's Something About Mary (Widescreen Edition) - basically all the same jokes without Jim Carrey to pull them off. This movie is not for everyone, but any astute movie watcher and any true Jim Carrey fan will instantly see the uncompromising energy which he poured into his 2 characters. He is truly a wonder to behold and will go down in history as one of the greatest physical comedic actors of all time. Say what you will about the movie, but it really is a shame that the Academy consistently overlooks Carrey's gifted performances. He has proven that he is a talented actor with the range to perform both serious and comedic roles. Gifted dramatic actors are a dime a dozen in Hollywood - I defy you to find a comedian who can do the things that Carrey does on screen and who can make audiences laugh with just a look.

"Me, Myself & Irene" suffers from the same split personality that Jim Carrey's character does. The comic set pieces are funny and Carrey is on his game. But the lame corrupt cops story that the comedy is wrapped around is from hunger. That said, there is alot to recommend in this film about a Rhode Island Highway Patrolman whose taken it on the chin for so long that his evil alter ego emerges. The kids that play Carrey's triplet "sons" are a hoot. There was talk at the time of this film's release of a spin-off film for the triplets but that never materialized probably because of the lukewarm reception that "Me, Myself & Irene" got. I think alot of the invective that was directed at this film was the result of it not being as funny as the Farrelly Brothers previous film, "There's Something About Mary". This one's not a classic but I've seen worse.

Me, Myself & Irene is Peter and Bobby Farrelly's follow-up to the enormously successful There's Something About Mary. They use the same combination of physical and dialogue-driven comedy here to produce another very funny, although somewhat less remarkable movie. While Mary created a cultural phenomenon, and paved the way for so many similarly plotted comedies to follow, Me, Myself & Irene is simply one of those followers. Although the formula is still successful, it just doesn't feel as fresh and new as There's Something About Mary, and it feels just a little as if the Farrellys are struggling to come to terms with their own success. Taken in isolation however, Me, Myself & Irene is very good at doing what it sets out to do - make you laugh by depicting the most absurd and often disgusting circumstances imaginable, and then taking a comic twist.

The story follows Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey), an 18-year veteran of the Rhode Island State Troopers, and a loser whose wife left him for a midget Negro Mensa member, and whose three children are decidedly dark skinned - and rather smart. Charlie doesn't deal well with conflict, and spends most of his time being used and abused by every man and his dog (literally). One day, something snaps inside of Charlie, and we meet Hank (Jim Carrey). Hank loves conflict and will do almost anything to create it. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Charlie can control Hank with drugs, the State Troopers aren't exactly thrilled to have the possibility of Hank working for them. It is at this point that Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) is brought in on an arrest warrant from out of state. This seems to be the perfect job for Charlie - an easy trip to take Irene to up-state New York and hand her over for her warrant. Unfortunately for Irene, her ex-boyfriend and well-to-do hood gets worried that she might know a little too much about the shady dealings he has been involved in. It is up to Charlie and Hank to ensure that Irene survives not only the ex-boyfriend and corrupt cops, but himself, long enough to prove her innocence.

This movie is very funny, and closely follows the formula laid out in previous Farrelly brothers movies. The final note to make regarding this movie is on the relationship between Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger who had quite a public romance following the shooting - and an equally public break up. By all accounts, Renée Zellweger did not allow a romantic relationship to develop while working on the movie, and this seems to have created a good on-screen chemistry between the two. Certainly comparing this movie to Proof Of Life that involved the highly public Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan relationship, Me, Myself & Irene came away without any ill effects.

This film was simply hilarious. I could not predict what was going to happen from one moment to the next. When I first heard of the concept of this film and saw the commercials for it, I thought it would be too silly and stupid to be funny. I was so wrong. It's filled with one laugh after another. I loved it. It's the type of film I could watch again and again. For those with kids, this is a Jim Carrey film and it is not intended for a young audience. There's too much profanity for that. My boyfriend is usually bothered by bathroom humor but was not bothered by this. You'll have to use your own judgement on that one. I was surprised that so many people seemed not to like the film. I rented it, but I certainly would not hesitate to purchase it.

When I rented this movie I thought I was in for a comedy treat but having watched I know why it's not been out too often!

The film starts off fairly slowly and doesn't have too many funny parts, I'll admit that there are some laughs but nothing that I could really pick out as being memorable.

The fun only starts when Jim's other personality comes out and he begins to interact with the other people. My personal highlight is after he confronts the mom and he's driving back, if you've seen the film you know what I mean.

Once he is ordered to escort the prisoner the jokes start to fall a little flat and you are wanting the evil personality to come back to inject some much needed comedy into the film. The film trundles along to the obvious climactic finish but we have to suffer the obvious fight between the good and bad personalities which might have been good apart from the feeling of Jim milking it for all it's worth.

I found the film to be a little muddled and by the end of the film I was wanting to see more of the evil personality as Jim was excellent with that part of the role. The less said about the three sons the better. I'm sure they were very funny for some people but I found it hard to understand what they were saying sometimes as their dialogue was very fast.

I would say that this isn't one of Jim Carrey's better films but if you are a fan of Jim then I'm sure you will enjoy it. I've given this film 2 stars because without the evil character it would only deserve 1.