At first, I was unimpressed with “Dumb and Dumber’s Gold Rush.” The title alone is nothing original, and too similar to the Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels film. Then, the short opens with a wide shot of a dried river bed with the Soggy Bottom Boys’ “Man of Constant Sorrow” playing in the background. O Brother Where Art Thou was a little too recent to make this work effectively.
However, once the action started, I warmed up quickly to the film. “Dumb and Dumber’s Gold Rush” stars Laiah Harvey (assumably director John Harvey’s daughter) and Paulinia Pesqueira as two bickering prospectors looking for gold in the dried river bed. With a chemistry reminiscent of Laurel & Hardy and Abbot & Costello with Laiah Harvey as the straight man and Paulinia Pesqueira as the doofus, the kids have a spark that you don’t always see in even professional actors.
Quickly, the film gets down to business, showing Laiah working hard digging and Paulinia picking up hunks of silver but tossing them away when she’s told they’re not gold.
It’s a cute little film obviously done as a family project. I found it quite entertaining and above the level of many such endeavors. And the two girls have a genuine screen presence that should make you chuckle.
