RATED: R

This is a mean-spirited and vulgar heap of crapola with just a few minor successful gags. Stars Jim Carrey and René Zellweger deserve far better than this Farrelly Brothers mess which comes no where near to their successful Something About Mary in humor or charm.

Carrey plays Charlie, a sweet Rhode Island state cop who marries his sweetheart and then promptly gets beat up by the black Mensa-minded midget who's chauffering them back to their house. The wife falls in love with the macho midget and dumps Charlie but not before she delivers a set of black triplets. Charlie raises the boys as his own and they grow and prosper into jive-talking geniuses, just like their dear old real Dad while they debate which Ivy-league school they're going to attend. This is the best gag in the film if you stomach their non-stop filthy mouthed talk.

After years of being the town's laughing stock and doormat, Charlie snaps and becames a schizo maniac by the name of Hank who'll take no guff from anyone. He's crude, rude and talks in a Clint Eastwood style whisper that isn't even as clear as Eastwood's. Charlie/Hank gets a psych evaluation and is put on medication and ordered to take a leave of absence which will begin right after he delivers a suspect back to New York. That would be Irene (Zellweger) who seems to be caught up in some scam involving her former boyfriend, the EPA, the FBI and a slew of cops, including Charlie and his crazed alter ego Hank.

Lotta says Carrey is in his prime with that rubbery face and body of his but the film just doesn't deliver beyond that. Also features Chris Cooper as Lieutenant Gerke and Robert Forster as Colonel Partington.

Reviewed 2/21/01