Top 365 Films – #322 – Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

DIRECTED BY: Tom Shadyac

STARRING: Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Loc and Troy Evans

BUDGET: $12m

EARNED (Worldwide): $107.2m

AWARDS: None

 

SYNOPSIS

A goofy detective specializing in animals goes in search of a missing dolphin mascot of a football team.

 

He’s the best at what he does…because he’s the only one that does it. Thanks to word of mouth, Ace Ventura by the Miami Dolphins to find out who stole their mascot – a trained dolphin named snowflake – and have him brought back to them before the Superbowl game.

 

Plot is simple. The formula that proceeds is simple. Everything that Jim Carrey does throughout however, is not. Think of a mashup of Dr Dolittle and Columbo, but on a shit-load of cocaine and you get Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Essentially if you replaced Jim Carrey and recast the role, this film will critically come off just as bad as it did back in the day and it definitely wouldn’t have made as much money or have the appeal that it did. It was all 100% Carrey that sells it and makes it memorable. Unfortunately the supporting cast, such as Courteney Cox and Sean Young, have little to do but react to Carrey’s comedic act and the middle act just seems to stall and give Carrey free reign to just go  improv mental and they’d work it in during the edit. As a kid, I played this film to death on VHS and now it’s funny but not as great as I remembered.

 

FAVOURITE SCENE: Tough call actually. I’d go with the scene of Ace at the mental hospital as the ‘forever stuck in the game’ football play (with Carrey going full method on slow-mo and replay).

FAVOURITE QUOTE: ‘It was all that Dan Marino’s fault, everyone knows that. If he had held the ball, laces out, like he was supposed to, Ray would never have missed that kick. Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. Would you like a cookie, son?’ – Mrs Finkle 

DID YOU KNOW?: Carrie-Anne Moss and Téa Leoni were considered for the role of Melissa Robinson.