Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Does everyone remember when Jim Carrey used to be funny?


I do.

At one time, Jim Carrey was hilarious.  I know, given his public profile, and some of the awful movies he's made, this is hard to believe, but really, at one time people couldn't get enough of this guy.  I remember the first time I really noticed him, on In Living Color.  He was doing his Jack Nicholson impression.  That one where he does an impression of Jack playing the Joker in Burton's Batman? 

I actually can't seem to find that...if you can, please post it in the comments.

But anyway, Jim Carrey was REALLY REALLY funny in the early 90's.  So when Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was announced, I knew I had to see this movie.

The film stars Carrey as Ace Ventura, an eccentric detective specializing in missing animal cases.  Ace is an arrogant but skilled protagonist, who is essentially written as a superhero.  Carrey, who, along with Jack Bernstein and director Tom Shadyac, wrote the screenplay, gets this.  Ace survives shark attacks, shootings, and Sean Young.  And Sean Young is straight up crazy.  Also, Carrey couldn't resist hyping his character's extreme sexual prowess with a pre-Friends Courteney Cox.  I have no doubt most of us would do the same were we writing the film. 


Carrey's real strengths get to shine through.  He has always had the comic timing of a Marx Brother meshed with just a little of the voice skills of the great Mel Blanc, combined with the spastic movements of Jerry Lewis and the facial malleability of Gumby.  Carrey also strays from obvious gross-out humor, instead making Ace extremely weird.  I have always appreciated this, as anyone can be gross, but it takes an incredible performer to convincingly pull off weird.

Other smart moves on the parts of the filmmakers:

• Limiting the number of lines Dan Marino gets to speak.  Dan looks like his default facial expression is bewildered, and his line delivery is set to "everything's a question."
• Actually filming the movie in Miami, since it takes place there.
• Udo Kier.  Yes he barely appears in the movie, but isn't he just creepy?

 Things that were not so good:

• The catchphrases.  Save me from the catchphrases.  I remember EVERYONE saying "All-righty then" and "Loohoo-say-her" back in the day.  This was...unfunny.  Also I believe if someone was caught using them too much, it would be considered justifiable homicide.
• The rampant homophobia:  Besides those jokes being way to easy even in the 90's, there are much funnier ways to finding out the woman you were kissing is in fact a man.
• Not enough Tone Loc.  I think we all agree on this.

Also of note is the spin-off cartoon, which is just as horrible as it sounds, but does prove that Carrey was a hugely bankable star.  Look, his first three starring roles got made into cartoons.  How many other actors can we say that about?

No, seriously, I'm asking, I have no idea.

Anyway, Ace.  I still love Ace, despite the passage of many years, and the film still holds up.  Sit down, gather your pets around the television, and enjoy.







Added Bonus:  Here's some scenes from the television broadcast of  Ace Ventura, not available on Blu-Ray or DVD.  Why not?  Maybe Warner Bros. hates us and wants us to die.