Movie Review: Fun With Dick And Jane (2005)

A comedy about the dark side of unchecked capitalism, Fun With Dick And Jane offers some good laughs but is often more juvenile than biting.

A communications manager with giant corporation Globodyne, Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) and his wife Jane (Téa Leoni) are living the good suburban life. Chief Financial Officer Frank Bascombe (Richard Jenkins) unexpectedly promotes Dick to Vice President, and he then gets to meet Chief Executive Officer Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin). 

But Globodyne is on the brink of financial collapse. The company suddenly goes bankrupt, Dick is embarrassed on national television, the pension plan is raided and the employees left destitute, while McCallister makes off with a fortune. In a tough employment market Dick and Jane struggle to find work, and in desperation resort to petty crime to avoid losing their house. But Bascombe re-emerges, along with an opportunity to redress the balance.

A lightweight comedy inspired by Enron-style corporate implosions, Fun With Dick And Jane updates the 1977 Jane Fonda/George Segal film with the same fair to middling outcome. Essentially a star vehicle for Jim Carrey to unleash his usual physical comedy and facial expression antics, here he is subdued enough to fit into the corporate milieu. Director Dean Parisot leans heavily on the decent chemistry between Carrey and Leoni as the couple sinking in financial quicksand, while writers Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller surround them with modestly entertaining if never sparkling content.

The highlights include newly-minted VP Dick Harper's live television interview as he is caught flat-footed by Globodyne's stock plunge, amplified later by rival corporate bros humiliating him as a legend. And irrelevant to the central plot but helpful in building empathy, Dick and Jane strengthen their bond after both earning bruised and bloated faces in their desperate attempts to find jobs. The frantic final caper in a posh bank is also well-handled.

But otherwise the content spreads thin over the short 90 minutes and several scenes are stretched into filler territory, including eye-rolling shots of a car skidding on wet pavement and a dragged-out footrace to an interview line-up. And this being a Carrey comedy, the humour often veers into cartoon territory at the expense of any attempts at witty satire.

Alec Baldwin and Richard Jenkins add acting heft in the key support roles, although both are stifled by the material. Dick and Jane do have fun, but no one gets to stretch.



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Movie Review: The Truman Show (1998)

An astute commentary on television culture's evolution, The Truman Show also explores the limits of human tolerance for the ordinary. The film is an engrossing examination of the societal condition, and as fascinating as its central show.

Television producer Christof (Ed Harris) has created a monstrously successful live, perpetual television show, tracking the minute-by-minute life of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), the only non-actor. Inserted from birth into a custom-built community of Seahaven, which is one humongous dome-enclosed and climate-controlled film set, Truman has no idea that every second of his life is being broadcast live to millions of viewers, using more than 5,000 hidden cameras.

Truman think he works as an insurance agent, and believes he is married to Meryl (Laura Linney, as actress Hannah Gill), that his best friend since school is Marlon (Roland Emmerich, as actor Louis Coltrane), and that his father died in a boating accident. Over the show's remarkable 30 years of continuous broadcast, various outside activists have tried to infiltrate the set to free Truman. He has never forgotten Lauren (Natascha McElhone, as actress Sylvia), an extra hired to play a high school student who tried to help him escape before she was bundled off the set. When the actor who played his father unexpectedly reappears in his life, Truman starts to suspect that something is not quite right and starts to question the world around him.

Directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol, The Truman Show expands the reality television concept to an unsettling edge, and in the process contemplates human boundaries of control, comfort and compliance. The film is thoughtful, often profound, but also tackles its serious issue with humour. The act of viewing and enjoying Truman's story is itself part of the societal guilty-pleasure dilemma. The film is also unsettling enough to raise doubts about any life: if Truman is so deluded about his reality, who is to say what is defined as real and what is not?

Everything in Seahaven is designed to be idyllic, and to convince Truman that he has no reason to want to leave. Ironically, Christof's attempts to instill the emotional fear of leaving and segregate Truman from the outside world create the most compelling moments of drama for the viewers of the show. And once Truman starts to suspect that everything is too perfect, it becomes increasingly difficult to convince him to settle for his artificial surroundings.

The film plays on the parallel themes of obsession with other people's lives, and the essence of the human condition. The viewers of the show are transfixed, immobile, living their lives vicariously through the television set and following Truman's ups and downs rather than getting on with creating their own memories. The further Truman pushes to escape his sad life, the more entrenched the viewers are in front of the television. It's a sad indictment of the culture, where society cares more about an artificial world labelled as reality than actual existence.

Also permeating through the film is Christof's relationship with Truman, presented as a surrogate for the mysteries of the bond between God and man. Christof loves Truman like a son, and wants him to be safe and content. But Truman has free will, and eventually learns to use it. As much as Christof will try and send cosmic signals about what may be the appropriate path, it will ultimately be man's actions that will govern his fate.

The Truman Show is one of Jim Carrey's most complete performances. Staying as far as he can from the elastic mugging and physical comedy which made him famous, Carrey as Truman conveys innocence, curiosity and ultimately a willingness to question and confront. In addition to excellent supporting performances from Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich and Natascha McElhone, the cast also includes Paul Giamatti as Christof's chief control room manager.

What is comfortable is not what is necessarily right. The Truman Show finds the spirit of a simple man yearning for a challenge, part of the never ending quest to self-define happiness.

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Movie Review: Me, Myself And Irene (2000)

A simply atrocious comedy, Me, Myself And Irene is an ugly stain in Jim Carrey's repertoire.

Charlie (Carrey) is a mild-mannered Rhode Island state police trooper. His new wife Layla (Traylor Howard) cheats on him with a midget black limousine driver. Even when Layla gives birth to black triplets and subsequently abandons the family, Charlie refuses to show any negative emotion or display anger. Years later and with his sons now foul-mouthed grow-ups, Charlie's bottled up anger snaps out in the form of a split personality. Hank is Charlie's alter-ego and his polar opposite, and emerges at unexpected intervals. Hank is rude, crude, and stands up for himself, seeking revenge on everyone who has disrespected Charlie.

Commanding officer Colonel Partington (Robert Forster) gives Charlie an assignment to transfer prisoner Irene (Renée Zellweger) to upstate New York. Irene is wanted on trumped up hit-and-run charges, but in reality she may have information that endangers the criminal activities of sleazy businessman Dickie (Daniel Greene) and corrupt police officers Gerke (Chris Cooper) and Boshane (Richard Jenkins). Charlie is attracted to Irene, and so is Hank but much less politely. Charlie struggles to contain Hank and soon finds himself on the run with Irene, trying to protect her from the bad guys.

Directed and co-written by the Farrelly brothers Peter and Bobby, Me, Myself And Irene is a lazy, almost insulting excuse for a parade of tiresome jokes directed at the pre-puberty immature boy market. With almost every attempted laugh involving the anus, dildos and combinations thereof, the film wallows in the misery of constipated minds who seem to genuinely believe that this material is funny.

There is no effort to explain the basic mechanics of the plot involving Irene, as the entire road trip is just a sorry backdrop for set-pieces that were not good enough for other movies. The best opportunity for a good laugh, in the shape of an encounter with a cow that refuses to die, could have been funny but is botched into a stupid wrestling match. Elsewhere, midgets, blacks, albinos and Rhode Islanders are mercilessly targeted with tasteless jokes, and its all delivered with a barrage of profanity that underlines the witless writing.

Carrey tries to emerge from the dross and does as best as he can with quick switches between Charlie and Hank, but even he is no match for the ghastliness of the material. Zellweger is generally wasted, while in barely defined roles Forster, Cooper and Jenkins appear mortified to be associated with the project.

Incomprehensibly overlong at close to two hours, Me, Myself And Irene is a nauseatingly interminable bungle.

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Movie Review: The Cable Guy (1996)

A stalker comic drama, The Cable Guy is part laugh-out funny and part creep-out serious. Jim Carrey stretches his persona into new territory, but ultimately the story occasionally trips on the gap between silly and tense.

Steve (Matthew Broderick) needs to install cable television service in his new apartment, having been kicked out of his old place by girlfriend Robin (Leslie Mann). The cable guy Chip (Jim Carrey) arrives, appears quite strange, but quickly installs the cable while also rearranging Steve's furniture. Acting on a tip from his buddy Rick (Jack Black), Steve offers Chip a bribe in return for turning on pay-TV channels. Chip agrees, labels Steve a preferred customer, and pretends that they are now close friends.

Chip takes Steve on tour of a gigantic satellite dish that feeds the cable service. Afterwards, Chip starts to stalk Steve, interfering with his basketball game, installing unwanted high-grade audio and video equipment in his living room, throwing a wild party and insisting on going out for dinner together. Every time Steve tries to end the friendship, Chip ups the stakes with threats or pleas for pity. Finally, Chip starts to interfere in the relationship between Steve and Robin, as well as within Steve's family.

Directed by Ben Stiller, The Cable Guy generally works but with some static and distortion. Mostly played for laughs, Chip's more threatening behaviour inserts dark tones that can appear out of place. Carrey and Broderick maintain balance and a generally light mood, often overcoming the film's uneven moments with pure charisma.

The Lou Holtz Jr. script does struggle with the dosage between fun and fear, and runs out of good ideas fairly early. Once the premise is set, there is little of substance to build upon lonely and strange guy stalking normal dude with a combination of gifts, victim cards and life meddling. With the dynamic between the two characters mostly static, Stiller is forced into prolonging some pretty mediocre scenes well past their sell-by date, a medieval-style battle between Steve and Chip in a knight-themed restaurant serving as a particularly tedious example.

A real-crime courtroom drama runs in the background on numerous television channels within the film, featuring Stiller as a murderous twin who was a former sitcom child star. The parallel story seems intended as a representation of the new low for television culture, but Stiller the director treats it as an odd distraction, leaving lingering doubts as to whether the idea was ever fully baked.

Better is the overarching theme of the film. Chip is a victim of a childhood spent in front of the television as babysitter, his growth stunted, and his mind atrophied into an inability to conduct normal social interactions. The Cable Guy effectively plays with the cascading consequences of one wrong move, Steve's problems stemming from his singular request for Chip to illegally enable channels in return for a bribe.

Carrey is excellent in the title role, combining comedy and menace to good effect and frequently letting loose with his unique brand of physical comedy, but this time with sinister undertones. Broderick's laid-back attitude similarly works well, Steve a relatively predictable canvass for Chip to paint his plot on. George Segal and Diane Baker have small turns as Steve's parents, while Owen Wilson appears as Robin' new suitor.

The Cable Guy provides a good picture, but can't avoid some crossed wires.

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Movie Review: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

An exercise in abject silliness that actually works, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective unleashed Jim Carrey and his brand of over-the-top physical comedy on an unsuspecting world.

In Miami, Ace Ventura (Carrey) is a really weird and quite broke pet detective, hired to find and recover missing pets of all sorts. When Snowflake, the dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, is abducted on the eve of the Super Bowl, the team's publicist Melissa Robinson (Courteney Cox) turns to Ace for help. But with the case attracting high public scrutiny, he quickly runs afoul of police lieutenant Lois Einhorn (Sean Young).

Ace's investigation leads him to believe that a member of Miami's 1984 AFC Championship winning team was responsible for Snowflakes' disappearance, and gradually a plot is uncovered involving a disgruntled former employee out to sabotage Miami's chances in the upcoming Super Bowl. A murder soon complicates the case, and star quarterback Dan Marino finds himself in a lot of trouble as the big game approaches.

1994 was Jim Carrey's spectacular break-out year, with The Mask and Dumb And Dumber joining Ace Ventura in catapulting the Canadian from obscurity to a comic superstar. Ace Ventura was the first to be released, a surprise hit that established Carrey's persona as a real life cartoon character, ridiculously expressive, living life according to a manic code of conduct that applies only to him, and extroverted to an extreme. Carrey has the uninhibited acting skills and dead-on timing essential to transform stupid behaviour to laugh-out-loud goofiness, and Ace Ventura showcases his skills to perfection.

There is really no other reason to watch this film. The plot is beyond inane, and the supporting cast is so thin as to be non-existent. Sean Young and Courteney Cox are meek foils to Carrey, and both are blown away into irrelevance. That rapper Tone Loc and quarterback Dan Marino are high up in the list of cast members says it all about the other talent on display. Director Tom Shadyac, making his debut, wisely ignores everything else and just trains his cameras on Carrey, who carries the film.

And riding on Carrey's energy, Ace Ventura is non-stop laugh fest. As a character Ace is indomitable, fuelled by misplaced self confidence and an inability to be rattled, whether facing a madman with baseball bat, wild gunmen, an incompetent police force, or a broken windshield. Whenever he appears to reach any limit his pushes for more comedy, catching bullets with his teeth, swimming with a shark, or exposing the evil mastermind against all logic. It's all ridiculous, and it mostly works as pure escapism.

Unapologetically ludicrous, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective crack the case of preposterous slapstick.

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Movie Review: Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

A time travel comedy romance, Peggy Sue Got Married is an amicable journey into the world of second chances.

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is an unwilling participant in her high school's 25-year reunion, but she is prodded to attend by daughter Beth (Helen Hunt). Peggy Sue's marriage to high school sweetheart Charlie (Nicolas Cage) has fallen apart, with Charlie cheating on her after having abandoned ambitions of a musical career to become a cheesy electronics salesman. At the reunion Peggy Sue catches up with old friends and classmates, including Richard (Barry Miller) who used to be the school's outcast nerd but is now a successful businessman. No one at the reunion knows the whereabouts of Michael (Kevin J. O'Connor), the dreamy and athletic class idealist.

After being anointed reunion queen, Peggy Sue faints and wakes up 25 years in the past, a few days before her 18th birthday. Her relationship with Charlie is on shaky ground, and although he is full of love, passion and promise, with her knowledge of the future, Peggy Sue cools towards him. She establishes a warmer friendship with Richard, and boldly sidles up to the aloof Michael, resulting in one memorable night. With the ability to make different decisions about the rest of her life, Peggy Sue tries to define what the right choices should look like.

After the time-travel-to-the-1950s success of Back To The Future (1984) and the boost of 1960's nostalgia provided by The Big Chill (1983), Peggy Sue Got Married straddles the two and lands in 1960. But rather than the broad comedy of DeLoreans-as-time-machines-powered-by-lightning or the examination of a generation losing touch with its principles, Peggy Sue Got Married is a more intimate, personal experience. One person, one unlikely opportunity to make a few different decisions and change the entire trajectory of a life that has seemingly turned miserable. What will Peggy Sue do?

In one of his smaller, more restrained outings, director Francis Ford Coppola keeps the mood light and the spirits high. Once she is transported back in time, Peggy Sue takes her predicament in stride, and settles down to life as an 18 year old teenager with all the benefits that come from 25 additional years of experience. She immediately senses the opportunity to do things differently, and to interact on a mature level with her parents (Barbara Harris and Don Murray) and sister (a young Sofia Coppola, already displaying the wooden delivery that would steer her to directing rather than acting).

And at school, free from the clique mind-set of her younger self, she breaks out of her peer group and rectifies two regrets by reaching out to the geeky Richard and the dark Michael. Although her actions in connecting with outcasts serve her ego, she also helps both boys become better men. And by looking again at a young, ambitious and talented Charlie, Peggy Sue experiences again what attracted her to him, and the dangers of a young love that she now knows will go astray.

Kathleen Turner, around 32 years old at the time of filming, transitions easily from a middle-aged woman going through a marriage crisis to a teenager enjoying a life of dates, parties, and exam failures. She gives the young Peggy Sue the sarcastic smarts that only come from a life of painful mistakes, much to the befuddlement of parents, teachers and classmates. Turner was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.

Nicolas Cage, Coppola's nephew and a decade younger than Turner, spends most of the movie as the young Charlie, and delivers his typical messy intensity, this time buffeted by a girlfriend who seems suddenly more self-assured and less entranced by his big dreams of artistic success. Jim Carrey, Joan Allen and Maureen O'Sullivan have small roles in the impressively deep cast.

Peggy Sue Got Married arrives at an understated conclusion, consistent with the tone of the movie. Small changes make a big difference, and big decisions can be accommodated with heart, rather than a backlash.

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Movie Review: Bruce Almighty (2003)

A clever comedy with a strong cast, Bruce Almighty delivers laughs while probing issues of free will and the natural human proclivity to look out for self-interest prior to appreciating the benefits of the greater good.

Baltimore TV reporter Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is desperate to land the position of news anchor. Instead, the station is happy to keep assigning him feel-good community stories to make use of his natural comic talent, and the anchor position goes to his nemesis Evan Baxter (Steve Carell). Feeling extremely sorry for himself and upset at what he perceives to be God's lack of attention to his needs, Bruce is fired for an on-camera melt-down and has a huge fight with his girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston).

Bruce receives a mysterious phone number on his pager, and it leads him to an encounter with God (Morgan Freeman) at an abandoned but remarkably well polished building. God gives Bruce a chance to do better at managing life's affairs by providing him with divine powers. Bruce wastes no time in selfishly using these powers to seduce Grace and embarrass Evan, while enhancing his own reporter credentials by uncovering Jimmy Hoffa's grave site. But when it comes to meaningfully helping himself and others, Bruce discovers how difficult it is to fulfill the simplest of human aspirations, even with all the powers of God at his disposal.

Bruce Almighty has plenty of bravado, screenwriters Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe,and Steve Oedekerk not satisfied at portraying God but going further and finding plenty of comic material in exploring what happens to mere mortals when provided with God-like powers. The comic elements mesh well with the message of taking personal responsibility before whining about divine failure. Director Tom Shadyac uses a light touch to mix the ingredients, the comedy remaining brisk and the lessons inferred rather than hammered.

Jim Carrey co-produced Bruce Almighty, and plays Bruce with just a touch of hysterical God-blame, enough to provide leeway for some classic moments of Carrey physical comedy. And when he does obtain God's powers, Bruce defaults to the expected behaviour from a man with a large chip on his shoulder, fixing what he perceives to be the wrongs in his life prior to even noticing what anyone else may need.

In support, Steve Carell, in one of earliest screen roles, demonstrates plenty of the comic potential that would catapult him into his own starring roles. Jennifer Aniston is confined to the typical, underdeveloped cute girlfriend role, Grace never explaining why she is hanging out with a Bruce who is initially so filled with negative hate towards his life.

There is no more distinguished and capable actor to play God than Morgan Freeman, and he adds plenty of class to Bruce Almighty with a performance emphasizing benevolence with just a hint of mischievousness.

Bruce Almighty has the power to entertain, and uses it wisely.

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The Movies of Jim Carrey

All movies starring Jim Carrey and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

The Dead Pool (1988)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

The Mask (1994)

Dumb And Dumber (1994)

Batman Forever (1995)

The Cable Guy (1996)

Liar, Liar (1997)

The Truman Show (1998)

Me, Myself And Irene (2000)

Bruce Almighty (2003)

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Fun With Dick And Jane (2005)

Yes Man (2008)

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Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Weird and thought-provoking, The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind explores the intertwining destiny and meaning of relationships through a warped mirror. From the uniquely creative mind of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the film lingers in the memory long after the credits fade.

The movie is told in a non-linear format, with the added challenge of intermingling conscious and subconscious scenes. The editing, by Iceland's Valdís Óskarsdóttir, consists of an intentional and almost random jumbling of sequence and reality. The end result works brilliantly as a puzzle, but The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a movie to be experienced and untangled, rather than simply viewed.

Introverted and awkward Joel (Jim Carrey) does not seem to have anything going for him in life until he meets and falls in love with free-spirited Clementine (Kate Winslet). Although initially they seem perfect for each other, the relationship sours over time, and they grow frustrated with each other. On a whim, Clementine retains the services of a dodgy agency named Lacuna Inc. and erases Joel from her memory, leaving him devastated.

Run by Howard (Tim Wilkinson) with the assistance of technicians Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) and receptionist Mary (Kirsten Dunst), Lacuna specializes in targeted memory elimination to remove the pain of broken hearts. Joel decides to erase Clementine from his memory, but under heavy sedation during the night-long procedure, he has second thoughts, and attempts to save precious memories of Clementine. Meanwhile, Patrick is lusting after Clementine, Stan is frolicking with Mary instead of paying attention to Joel's procedure, and Mary discovers an unwelcome secret about Howard.

Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey are unforgettable as Clementine and Joel, a couple either meant to be together  or doomed to heap misery on each other. Winslet gives Clementine by far the more dominant personality, shooting determination from searing eyes and expressing her mood with ever-changing, never subtle hair colours. Carrey demonstrates his latent talent beyond slapstick comedy, his subdued Joel an insecure man beaten down by an unfulfilling life and surrendering to forces that he has long since abandoned any expectation of controlling.

The foursome of Wilkinson, Ruffalo, Wood and Dunst ensure that Lacuna Inc. is a most inadvertently unprofessional organization purporting to provide quasi-medical services, while providing Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind with an entertaining secondary cast.

Where Kaufman could have done better is in providing more of a backstory for Joel and Clementine. The two central characters are only introduced in the context of their relationship, and precious little else is revealed about their backgrounds. For all their travails, they remain vaguely detached as characters deserving of empathy: without each other, Kaufman provides few reasons to care for them.

Director Michel Gondry, with deep roots in the music video and commercial industries, has the perfect experience to perfectly balance Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind between charming and unhinged. Most of the film thrives on an unending barrage of quick cuts and dizzying visual effects, but Gondry assembles it in a manner that recalls the matter-of-factness of a dream, where incredible events are just normal.

The film asks whether emotion-packed relationships can ever be truly left behind, and whether to love and experience deep hurt is better or worse than never loving at all. In the most roundabout way, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind presents the argument that although the pain is sometimes unbearable, the great loves of life are indeed eternal.

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Movie Review: Liar, Liar (1997)

An old-fashioned comedy, Liar, Liar provides Jim Carrey with all the leeway he needs to unleash his talent for slap stick humour. Beyond all the mugging there is precious little going on, but when Carrey is in this sort of top form, he requires little support.

Lawyer Fletcher Reed (Carrey) lives by lying. He is working his way up the corporate ladder by winning cases on behalf of wealthy clients, but Fletcher cannot stop his incessant lying even when it comes to his family. Divorced from Audrey (Maura Tierney) but still idolized by his young son Max (Justin Cooper), Fletcher manages to regularly make promises that he cannot keep, including missing Max's birthday party.

Deeply disappointed, Max's birthday wish is for his Dad to say only the truth for 24 hours. The wish immediately comes true, plunging Fletcher's life into turmoil. His relationship with his lustful boss (Amanda Donohoe) is knee-capped, and his latest legal case defending an unfaithful wife (Jennifer Tilly) seeking massive alimony payments is thrown into chaos when Fletcher suddenly cannot lie on behalf of his client. By learning to deal with the truth and only the truth for at least one day, Fletcher must try to salvage his career and his relationship with Max.

Director and frequent Carrey collaborator Tom Shadyac knows how to get the most out of his star. The premise allows Carrey to let loose with an endless barrage of over-the-top physical comedy, as Fletcher struggles mightily against the mysterious forces preventing him from spouting his usual stream of lies. Carrey is hilarious, his rubbery face and extraordinary physical control on full display, and he easily carries the film.

The rest of the cast, while competent, is there effectively to simply watch and cheer Carrey on. While the talented Maura Tierney provides a reminder that the movies mostly lost out to television in providing her with memorable roles, the likes of Jennifer Tilly and Cary Elwes (as Audrey's new boyfriend) are just sketched in to activate Carrey's switches.

Liar, Liar delivers simple laughs and a simple message in an entertaining, and ironically honest, package.

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Movie Review: Dumb And Dumber (1994)

A celebration of idiocy, Dumb And Dumber actively seeks and happily steers onto every low road. Some moments are funny, but many are just too stupid to be enjoyable.

Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) is a confirmed idiot, and his roommate and buddy Harry (Jeff Daniels) is equally dense. Working briefly as a limousine driver in Providence, Rhode Island, Lloyd gets to deliver Mary (Lauren Holly) to the airport. Mary is rich and beautiful, and Lloyd is immediately smitten. At the airport, Lloyd notices that Mary has abandoned a briefcase; he retrieves it but not in time to return it to Mary, who has boarded her flight to Aspen.

Unbeknownst to Lloyd, Mary was actually making a drop: the briefcase was a ransom payment intended for criminals Joe (Mike Starr) and J.P. (Karen Duffy), who have kidnapped her husband. Lloyd convinces Harry to embark with him on a long road trip from Providence to Aspen, and they are soon hotly pursued by Joe and J.P. on a journey that rapidly degenerates from misinformed to chaotic. Once they make it to Aspen, Lloyd and Harry need to find Mary and return the briefcase, but with two idiots in control of a lot of money and kidnappers in control of a high society member, all hell can be expected to break loose in the Aspen snow.

Jim Carrey is suitably farcical and by far the best thing about Dumb And Dumber, elevating an otherwise potentially irksome film into reasonable entertainment. But Lloyd Christmas is among Carrey's most forgettable characters. Yes, he gets himself into continuous trouble that is occasionally funny, but stupid is also predictable, and predictability kills comedy. Once it is established that Lloyd will make the stupidest decision available at every turn, he is rarely capable of springing genuinely amusing surprises.

Jeff Daniels plays Harry as just slightly more world-weary and a lot shaggier than Lloyd, but he also is entertaining just in patches, his dumbness eventually blanketing any sparks of originality. Harry's excessive dogmobile ride is a good indication of the film's ability to deal in subtleties.

Mary spends plenty of time humoring Lloyd and Harry because the script demands it, but Lauren Holly does little to answer the question as to why Mary would tolerate the dimwits for any longer than it would take to slam the door in their face. Holly at least got something out of the film: she became Mrs. Jim Carrey in 1996, a union that lasted for all of two years.

Brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly keep the cameras pointing at Carrey's face to maximize use of their main asset, but the shallowness of the character eventually makes even his mug tiresome. Dumb And Dumber recalls the days of lowest common denominator, Laurel and Hardy style slapstick comedy. Yes, morons are funny, but some sharp wit would have been appreciated, if for no other reason than to demonstrate acknowledgement of screen comedy evolution.

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Movie Review: The Mask (1994)

The perfect star vehicle for Jim Carrey, The Mask is a hyperactive, hysterically funny movie, joyously traveling at breakneck speed around blind corners.

Bland and lonely banker Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey) is drifting through a boring life, with his dog Milo as his only friend, when he finds a mystical, ancient mask. When he puts it on, Ipkiss is transformed into The Mask, a green-headed, ultra-confident, cool, heroic and suave character capable of amazing death-and-gravity defying tricks usually reserved for cartoon characters.

The bank that Ipkiss works for is targeted for a robbery by the gang of Dorian Tyrell, including his dame Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz). Ipkiss is attracted to Tina as she pretends to be a bank customer, but as The Mask he is soon causing havoc with the robbery plans, attracting the attentions of the police, and invading the nightclub operated by Tyrell for a final showdown. As events spiral ever out of control, both Tyrell and, hilariously, Milo, get turns to experience the powers of putting on the mask before sanity is somewhat restored.

Good as it is in a madcap way, the plot really doesn't matter one bit. The Mask is all about giving Jim Carrey the best possible role to showcase his manic talent, and showcase he does. The scenes with Carrey as The Mask are an out of control riot, with what is essentially a cartoon character invading the screen with unbridled energy and operating at ten times the intensity of everyone else. The laughs and jokes are never ending and often hit the mark, Carrey's delivery is over-the-top brilliant, and his athleticism and physical talent immense.

Former model Cameron Diaz gets a most memorable big screen debut, and more specifically a spectacularly memorable first scene as she enters the target bank with no intentions except to distract by sucking all attention and eyeballs towards her considerable charms. Total distraction is achieved with unqualified success. Among the major characters, Tina is the only one not to get to wear the mask, but that is because her character is already outlandishly sexy in appearance and behaviour, a real-life Jessica Rabbit.

Chuck Russell, directing his first film since the humdrum The Blob in 1988, creates the perfect canvass for the antics of The Mask. The movie is all about vivid colours, song-and-dance numbers exploding out of nothing, vibrantly decorated sets, and flashy costumes, all just to match the kinetic energy that Carrey brings to the role.

The Mask is creative, inspired entertainment, capturing a comic star at his peak performing in the perfect movie to suit his unique talents.




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Movie Review: Yes Man (2008)

Yes Man occupies the harmless terrain at the intersection of comedy, romance, and lessons-in-life-as-taught-by-Hollywood. It gives Jim Carrey ample opportunities to display his comedic talent, and thankfully he stays relatively in control.

Carl Allen (Carrey) is a loan approval officer at a local bank. Since his wife left him he has become negative and depressed, avoiding all social interactions and life experiences. After he skips out on his friend's engagement party, he is convinced to attend a self-help Yes! seminar where he commits to turning his life around by saying Yes to every single opportunity that comes his way.

This of course leads to a boy-meets-girl, boy-loves-girl, boy almost-loses girl convoluted romance with a sweet artist (Zooey Deschanel); convulted success at work; and mis-adventures involving learning the Korean language; a mail-order bride from Iran; an unplanned trip to Nebraska and unwanted attention from the FBI.

The film, directed by Peyton Reed and loosely based on a true story, moves briskly, and never dwells too much after making its funny point in every scene. Carrey and the supporting cast are game, with good comic timing and general avoidance of excess. Rhys Darby as Carl's boss at the bank particularly stands out, playing a seemingly happy character with his own personality issues.

There is nothing dramatically surprising or overwhelming about Yes Man. The comedy is moderate, the romance is mellow, and the characters are refreshingly almost normal as far as movies like this go. For fans of light vanilla ice-cream with just a light dusting of chocolate sprinkles, Yes Man is satisfying.






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