Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (DVD, 1997)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Where to start for a film like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is beguiling. Discuss its introduction of quite possibly one of the best comedic and dramatic actors of the last decade? Yammer on about its role in the eventual behemoth of the gross-out/slapstick comedy boom that would finally explode with the Farrelly brothers' There's Something About Mary? Dissect, with careful words, the forgotten, amazingly brief acting career of Funky Cold Medina's biggest fan, Tone Loc? One is at a loss of words as to where to begin to talk about this profoundly absurd film.

It begins with a dolphin. Snowflake, the Dolphins football team's mascot, has been kidnapped and after a brief search, it is decided that only one man is right for the job: Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey). Ventura specializes in crimes involving animals being stolen, lost or mistreated. He's also a total loon; hiding about two dozen species of animal in his apartment, taking dips in shark tanks and harboring an affinity for making his butt talk. When Ace, along with the football teams business assistant Melissa Robinson (Courteney Cox), takes the case, it leads him to a football player, Ray Finkle, who was fired after missing a field goal in the Super Bowl. The murder count rises and the morale of the Dolphins' players' dips as Ace tries to track down Snowflake before the "big game," while also butting heads with Lieutenant Lois Einhorn (a particularly thorny Sean Young).

As one might suspect, the plot is flimsy, but it's steel-reinforced compared to movies that have followed in its footsteps. Example: Finkle, as the villain, has a solid background, and there's a certain, strange fright to him. The trip Ace takes to visit Finkle's parents conjures up equal feelings of humor and haunting, especially during the screening in Finkle's childhood room. Small scenes like that are what sets Ventura just a little ahead of the pack.

Of course, the main draw is Carrey, unleashed and with a six-pack of Jolt Cola in him. It's hard to remember that before his tight, graceful performances in movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Man on the Moon, and The Truman Show, Carrey was actually introduced to us as a manic menace, fresh of his Fire Marshal Bill routines on In Living Color. He was equally hyper in Dumb & Dumber and The Mask, but Ace Ventura holds that all-too-rare B-movie feel, coupled with a budding stars first chance to show what he can do. The frenetic energy he shows in the dinner party scene and the mental hospital scene could power 100 pitter-patter comedies, but here, it's in damn near every scene. All this gives Ventura an authentic feeling; there's something in it that triggers feelings of ownership and discovery, as if you were the first to "figure it out." It's not exactly rare, but it gives the movie an edge. Did I mention that Tone Loc is in it? He's really good too.

HE'S THE BEST THERE IS. IN FACT, HE'S THE ONLY ONE THERE IS! HE'S ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE. (JIM CARREY) IS ON THE CASE TO FIND THE MIAMI DOLPHIN'S MISSING MASCOT AND QUARTERBACK DAN MARINO. HE GOES EYEBALL TO EYEBALL WITH A MAN-EATING SHARK,STAKES OUT THE MIAMI DOLPHINS AND WOOS AND WOWS THE LADIES. WHETHER HE'S UNDERCOVER,UNDER FIRE OR UNDERWATER, HE ALWAYS GETS HIS MAN...OR BEAST!

Ace Ventura is One of Jim Carrey's best performances... Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

This was a pretty funny movie back in the day and I still enjoy it every once in awhile. Jim Carrey is his normal 'Over the Top' self and the supporting cast does a great job.

Final Verdict:

4/5

Rent or Buy?: If you're a big Jim Carrey fan this is a must buy.

IF YOU FIND THIS REVIEW HELPFUL PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE. Thank you.

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!!!

I love this movie, Jim Carrie is the best person for the role of Ace. He is crazy, cooky, plays by his own rules, outside the box. The comedy is funny and there are no animals harmed in the making of this movie.