Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Jim Carrey at his zaniest!

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“I'm guessing that everybody knows the story of this movie by now, but for those who might not have had the opportunity to see this great movie, it's quite a simple formula. The Miami Dolphins mascot is stolen and by word-of-mouth advertising Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) is called into manic action. His job is to find the dolphin and return it before The Miami Dolphins' crucial game. Jim Carrey is quite simply amazing, I never stopped laughing the whole way through the movie. This is surely Carrey's best work, even now. OK, Dumb and Dumber and The Mask are very funny movies too, but this takes the biscuit. Everything Ace does made me laugh, from whipping football player's with a towel to get a ring imprint to showing up at a mansion party and being his usual manic self. 100 laughs per hour, if you have a sense of humour, then this movie is for you!!!”

A good review but Ace Ventura is definitely an acquired taste when it comes to sense of humour…

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“It's mainly because of Ace Ventura. He's just too much here, too much to the point where it's just stupid and VERY annoying and just not funny. He was a lot better in The Mask and Bruce Almighty, but here, it's just too much. I don't understand why people find Jim Carrey doing dumb faces or saying dumb things hilarious, it's really not. It's just stupid. How was this a hit film? How did it do it? Did people really watch crap like this? Because honestly, that's like watching Chris Crocker kiss another man, I mean seriously, it's just NOT FUNNY! It's just so bad, and people are saying "no it's not Jim Carrey, he did amazing" no, honestly, it WAS him, because he was just too much here, and it's just not funny, it's stupid. Definitely a 1/10, an abysmal film, watching it was worse than cutting up my butt with razor blades and rolling in a pile of salt.”

… And this review proves my point, Ace Ventura is Jim Carrey at his absolute craziest and clearly it goes too far for some people. Me on the other hand…

What I thought:
This incredibly silly comedy works for me mainly on two areas, the fact that I still have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy (vital in liking this film!) and it makes me very nostalgic. This and the sequel (Natures Call) got me though the last few years at secondary school, where me and my friends quoted it endlessly along with another Jim Carrey hit; Liar Liar. This means that every time I watch it I still laugh in the same places and feel the need to instantly call or text my old school friends the same parts we used to do.

This aside, Ace Ventura is as I have said before an acquired taste. If you have a very silly sense of humour you should get a kick out of it every time our hero is on screen. It dips a bit every time he’s off it (which thankfully isn’t much). Some people however will just find it silly and not funny at all, this film is not for them, they should be watching Woody Allen or something! It’s important to forget things like plot and character development when watching any of Carrey’s older films and this is no exception. A thin ‘looking for a dolphin / gender bending plot twist’ ties the movie together but this is just a stage for Jim Carrey’s silliest character. It’s brilliantly funny if you have the right sense of humour.