ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
Ace Ventura, a guy with an outlandish Hawaiian shirt and long side burns, has nothing but bad hair days. Without any of the refinements he has shown in some of his latter films, Jim Carrey, as Ace Ventura, keeps the humor in this one insufferably crude. The first Ace film in hopefully a short series is called ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE. Never has a film been less in need of a sequel than this one, but after making over a hundred million dollars in 1994, there has, regrettably, already been one sequel.
In need of a better script than the one by Jack Bernstein, Carrey, and the director, Tom Shadyac, Carrey struts his stuff without restraint. The director lets Carrey run wild, which in Carrey's case is a dangerous thing to do. Carrey is an undeniable comedic genius but one in need of control. As proof of how good Carrey can be, consider his relatively more restrained performances in LIAR, LIAR and THE MASK.
Typical of the crude bathroom humor in ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE is a scene of Ace bending over and manipulating his rear in a sick form of ventriloquism. The rest of the movie is the same, ad nauseam.
To the extent that the movie has a plot, it involves Ace, loud mouthed, pet detective extraordinaire, in search of a professional football team's dolphin mascot, which was stolen two weeks before the Super Bowl. The team uses Ace to track down the animal.
The script is devoid of ideas, and the movie plays as if it were one long ad lib routine by Carrey. Sean Young, who, since her one excellent part in NO WAY OUT, gives her usual forgettably bad performance, this time as a police detective. She and all of the other actors provide little more than a backdrop for Carrey's showing off. ACE VENTURA has one memorable scene -- the ending credits, which bring blessed relief.
ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE runs 1:26. It is rated PG-13 for profanity, nudity, and crude sexual humor. The movie would be acceptable for most kids ten and up.
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