# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE (1994)
Director: Tom Shadyac.
Writers:
Jack Bernstein, Tom Shadyac, Jim Carrey.
Starring: Jim Carrey, Courtney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Loc, Dan Marino.

Poffy Ace: Vegetable Detective
ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE Jim Carrey Tom Shayac
When Over-The-Top is Under-Achieving.
© Jon Dunmore, 19 Oct 2005.


Alllrighty then…

Like a ballistic missile launched from the irreverent camp of In Living Color (of which he was the odd-white-man-out alumnus), Jim Carrey's second-ever leading role remains a watershed performance of mega-ultra-outré singularity.

Shadyac's straightforward direction leaves Carrey, as the eponymous hero, the much-needed space to run amok like a force of nature that few comedians before him have commanded (notably, early Jerry Lewis).

The plot of the Pet Detective recovering a kidnapped dolphin mascot is almost irrelevant, as scenery-chewing is taken to oxygen-depleting levels whenever Carrey inhabits more than one-tenth of the screen frame, in a frenetic story that takes Ace from football fields to Southern backwaters, to infiltrating a mental asylum and swimming with sharks.

Sophisticates and art-house elitists whine over Carrey's Method, but his execution is unquestionably adept and engineered for maximum impact. Compared to the exhausted shtick of the Adam Sandlers and Pauly Shores, this is a Bergman Festival.

With loud Hawaiian shirts.


END

ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE (1994)
Director: Tom Shadyac.
Writers:
Jack Bernstein, Tom Shadyac, Jim Carrey.
Starring: Jim Carrey, Courtney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Loc, Dan Marino.


# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Added: 2005 Oct