Lunacy looms large in the doltish ‘Idiots’

     In borrowing the blueprints from classics like “The Last Detail” and “Midnight Run,” writer-director Macon Blair has mounted something dumber than a box of hammers, appropriately called “Idiots.” And who better to play the titular morons than Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr.? OK, yes, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels did do it better and more convincingly in “Dumb and Dumber,” but Franco and Jackson aren’t far behind in their imbecilic behavior.

    I can’t promise that they are wet-your-pants funny, but they did elicit a chuckle or three from this stoic cynic in the service of playing a pair of mismatched strangers forced to combine forces to escort a smug rich kid from his mama’s sprawling estate to a rehab center in Virginia. How hard can such a well-paying gig be? Turns out, death-defying as Frano’s stoner, Mark, and Jackson’s atonement-seeking Davis encounter a gauntlet of sex workers and miscreants en route. Oh, and a bout of explosive diarrhea you won’t soon forget.

    Those obstacles also include their not-so-precious cargo, Sheridan Kimberley (Mason Thames), a shaggy-haired, drug-addled teen attempting to make a break for it at every opportunity. It almost goes without saying that the diverse trio will conquer their age, religious and economic divides before they reach their destination. What you don’t expect is how much fun there is getting there in Mark’s rust-bucket set of wheels.

     The film, originally prejoratively titled “The Shitheads,” consists of two distinct, extended set pieces, one involving Kiernan Shipka’s exotic dancer for hire, Irina, and a family of deranged mercenaries led by Peter Dinklage’s Koko and his wannabe rapper son, going by the nom de plume of Pricka Bush da Werewolf (a hilarious Nicholas Braun). The latter is the funnier of the two sequences, but the one that’s most endearing involves Shipka, under a dark wig and behind a faint Spanish accent, and Lynn Wanlass as her kinky mother, Baba, seeking to recover stolen loot from a horde of creepy businessmen.

     It’s a bit problematic that the supporting players prove more interesting than Mark and Davis, both of whom lack depth because we learn so little about their pasts. Both are pretty much types. Mark, lazy, irresponsible stoner who’s burned too many bridges; and Davis, the God-fearing doofus who wants desperately to serve Jesus but botches every chance he gets. Their moral divide isn’t explored nearly enough, nor are their failures at being productive citizens.

    Franco and Jackson do wonders with what little they have to work with, often falling back on their sparkling chemistry to mold characters you can’t help caring about. Jackson emerges as the smartest and more sympathetic of the duo, but Franco has his moments employing his lovable bad-boy schtick. The supporting cast includes a wonderful cameo by Killer Mike as a flustered pastor trying to make sense of why Davis took his Sunday school class to a movie where “dongs were being slipped in.” 

     I hated laughing at a movie so blatantly peddling stupidity, but what are you going to do? Eventually, you begin to recognize and appreciate the intelligence behind the idiocy. Blair is very sly in that regard. He also proves far more accomplished on this project than he did on last summer’s annoyingly awful “The Toxic Avenger.” True, his sense of humor is geared toward a particular clientele that values goofiness over raw wit. But “Idiots” is, hands down, his most accessible flick yet, one that you’d be a fool not to chance. Just remember to check your brain at the door.

Movie review

Idiots

Rated: R for sexual material, pervasive language, drug content, some violence, bloody images

Cast: Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Peter Dinklage and Kiernan Shipka.

Director: Macon Blair

Writer: Macon Blair

Runtime: 98 minutes

Where: In theaters Aug. 28

Grade: B-