the farrelly brothers' third film , after dumb and dumber ( 7 . 5/10 ) and kingpin ( 8/10 ) , brings together the real-life couple of cameron diaz and matt dillon , some nasty humour , a cute dog , and a mix of love , fate and romance . 
plot : high-school nerd ted gets lucky when the cutest girl in his class asks him to the prom . 
unfortunately for ted , he accidentally gets a part of his male anatomy ( ouch ! ) 
caught in his zipper , and misses the big night . 
thirteen years later , ted still can't get mary out of his mind , and hires a private detective ( dillon ) to find her . 
once found , it turns out that mary has more than one suitor , and that's when the real fun begins . 
critique : likeable comedy with a few extremely funny scenes , some funny looking people , and a plot that won't ever put you to sleep . 
having said that , i must admit that i did like the farrellys' two previous films more than this one , but that is saying a lot , since i really did love those earlier pics . 
this one is also quite funny , but it didn't really blow me away like the others . 
then again , maybe my expectations were too high . 
then again , maybe i should shut up , and write a little more about the film , and less about my supposed subconscious reasons for liking/disliking the film . 
continuing where their other pictures left off , the farrellys' create a cutesy world of people with strange and endearing qualities , and a simple plot by which to tie them all together . 
this one also includes plenty of toilet humour , but also some borderline fun-making of the disabled and mentally-challenged . 
i must admit that i really wasn't sure whether to laugh at some points or not . 
not a good place to be . 
having said that , the scenes that did tear through the audience , and yours truly , were extremely hilarious , and went on for several minutes after the punchline . 
the laughter practically killed out the next scene for one of the best ones in the movie ( something to do with hair gel ) . 
on the negative end , i did not like the musical interludes of jonathan richman that ran through the entire picture . 
i found them quite useless , unfunny and distracting . 
also , i found that a lot of the funnier scenes had already been shown in the film's trailer . 
and of course , i never quite buy the fact that these beautiful , intelligent , single women still can't seem to find the " right guy " ( see kiss the girls ( 7/10 ) . 
i did really like all of the actors in the film , especially ben stiller , who appears to be solidifying his mark as a great comical actor with this picture and one of my favourites from 1996 , flirting with disaster ( 8/10 ) . 
i also liked matt dillon with his big teeth , and lee evans with his superb faux-sympathy british accent . 
funny stuff . 
also , make sure that you stay for the credits , because there is an entire montage of outtakes from the film that plays under a lip-synched version of " build me up buttercup " , which is really cool . 
overall , a cute comedy with a decent premise , and a few particularly hilarious scenes . 
little known facts : the farrellys big break came when they somehow got a copy of their script " dust to dust " into the hands of eddie murphy via ? murphy's neighbour . 
they only found out about murphy's interest , when they saw eddie mention the script on the david letterman show one night . 
matt dillon is a high school dropout . 
in between acting gigs , dillon has branched out into the restaurant business . 
close to home in his native new york , he co-owns both a bar called the whiskey and a swanky uptown eatery called the falls . 
cameron diaz stands 5 " 9 , started working as a model at the early age of 16 , and loves cats . 
ben stiller's father is jerry stiller . 
he played george costanza's ( jason alexander ) father on tv's " seinfeld " . 
peter farrelly has written a novel entitled " outside providence " which is currently being filmed starring alec baldwin . 
rob moran , who plays the cop in this film , also played the millionaire bowler in kingpin , and the bartender in dumb and dumber . 
he is old friends with the farrelly brothers from college , and is currently married to entertainment tonight anchor/correspondant julie moran . 
harland williams , who plays the nutty hitchhiker in this film , also played a state trooper in the farrelly's earlier dumb and dumber , and was the star of the unfortunate rocket man .