Made by the Motion Picture Corp. of America, the company behind "Dumb & Dumber," this ersatz comedy might be better called "Bio-Dumbest." It's the story of two brain-dead Gen-Xers (Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin) who stumble into a biosphere experiment and wreak havoc. Given Shore's established pull with the MTV set, the concept could have been a winning one.
The problem is that scripters Kip Koenig and Scott Marcano provide no jokes, just physical antics, as if the lead characters are so stupid they can't say anything funny even by accident, the way Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels did. A sign of the paucity of laughs is that the two best gags involve music, one a simple cue, the other a rendition of Big '80s music-video standard "The Safety Dance." Film school grad Jason Bloom makes his directing debut, but his inexperience shows; a promising throughline that could have worked--the inept machinations of the dumb duo end up out-sciencing the scientists--remains underexplored. Starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin. Directed by Jason Bloom. Written by Kip Koenig and Scott Marcano. Produced by Brad Krevoy, Steve Stabler and Brad Jenkel. An MGM release. Comedy. Rated PG-13 for crude language, sex-related material and some drug content. Running time: 93 min.