Locked In: The Fresh Adventures of the Latest Dumb and Dumber

Ethan Koester and Jhye Smith’s Locked In is a 35-minute action-comedy that delights in its theatricality on every level. Are all the actors hilariously cast against their character ages? Yes. Are they all working with an exaggerated plot that makes sense only with fun on everyone’s minds? Nothing could be truer.

Co-written by Justin McCleskey and Smith, Dumb and Dumber cop duo Shon (Smith) and Devin (McCleskey) are victims of budget cuts, because the one brain cell they pass back and forth between themselves seems unlikely to have been a product of nature. They get out of one pickle only to land in another, and their modus operandi is maximum chaos at all times.

Meanwhile, a legendary singer in his 20s loses his daughter, also in her 20s, to abductors, who are also in their 20s. The case goes to detectives Devin and Shon, in their 20s, at the begrudging approval of their boss, also in his 20s. This is a college play put on film. This feels like a good thing at least half the time. The ensemble cast is endearingly loud, and the unmissable artifice of their performances becomes part of the film’s charm. As does the unconfident camerawork, but less often and less effectively so.

The plot is thus kicked into action (forgive the pun) as Devin and Shon go to work reuniting Love Barrymore (Mischel Johnson) with her father (Ezra J. Ali-Dow). The action choreography—and there is a fair amount of it—is a mix of hijinks and serious punch. Sometimes literally, as in a crucial fight involving one of the abductors (Kiyoon Kim) and Devin in a cotton stuffed shirt meant to pass for elderly flab. But when a round of Russian roulette stops being a joke, it triggers (forgive another pun) a chain reaction that crescendoes in the film’s multi-thread climax. Chaos, just as its lead duo likes it.

Locked In is fun and funny, but its reception is hinged on saving it for the specific mood of tomfoolery. Even its more dramatic moments fall apart into silliness, and Dumb and Dumber continue on with their shenanigans for one more day.

Watch Locked In Short Film Trailer