Me, Myself & Irene (2000) More at IMDbPro »

Glancing over some of the other reviews of Me, Myself and Irene that crop up on this page, it seems loads of people absolutely hate this movie. If anything, the majority of negative comments appear to be coming from people quick to dismiss it as a dumb piece of un-PC gross out comedy, which is completely missing the point. This is a Farrelly Brothers film with Jim Carrey in the lead role, what were they expecting? Citizen Kane redux? I myself have a masters degree in Film Studies and while I like to sit around, stroking my beard (or failing that, somebody else's), watching Almodovar films and saying "fascinating" at regularly timed intervals, I also like to laugh. And Me, Myself and Irene is one of the most gut bustingly funny films I've watched in months.

The story concentrates on a Rhode Island police officer named Charlie Bailey-Gates (Carrey), a downtrodden member of the community who everyone else in the town regularly takes advantage of and who hasn't been the same since his wife left him for a midget limo driver. One day though things get a bit too much and Charlie snaps, goes mad and ends up driving a car into the front window of the town barber shop and defecating on his neighbour's lawn. One trip to therapy later and it transpires that all his bottled up rage has manifested itself as a split personality called Hank and he has to keep taking pills to keep him sedated. Shortly after this happens, he meets a down on her luck woman called Irene (Renee Zellweger) who is in serious trouble with the law and events conspire to send the duo on a wild cross country journey to clear their names of murder.

To say this lends itself to some painfully low brow humour would be an understatement and whether or not you will enjoy the movie rests largely on what your reaction to the phrase "Jim Carrey being hit with nun-chucks by an angry black midget" is. For those of you who prefer his more gentle approach in The Truman Show or Man on the Moon then this is not the film for you. If however, you howled with laughter watching Dumb & Dumber as I did, then this should be right up your street. Carrey, fresh off playing more restrained roles in the previously mentioned films looks to be having a total riot letting himself loose and his rubbery faced contortions are hilarious. Watching him wrestling with a cow, beating himself up and getting drop kicked down a hill is an absolute blast, the man is king of physical comedy. Throw in some very, very funny scenarios involving rubber dildos, albino waiters who may secretly be serial murderers and tarantulas and you have a highly entertaining turn.

Its not all about Carrey though and some of the best moments come from his three sons. Charlie it seems was too happy to be married to be concerned when his wife gave birth to three black triplets and ended up raising the boys as his own, so when the storyline properly kicks off he has a trio of bickering homeboys for kids who all happen to be geniuses. The dialogue between the three provides some of the highlights of the film, especially during the scene where the boys steal a police helicopter. It also leads to the immortal line "no bitches after eleven." So before you all start complaining about this being crude, offensive, low brow trash and how we should all be watching Aguirre: Wrath of God or The Seventh Seal to really get the best out of cinema, consider this: not all movies have to be po-faced musings on the fates of man. Sometimes, all you really want is crude, offensive, low brow trash and this one was so hilarious, I had to stop the DVD three times because I was laughing so much I kept missing half the jokes.