While Carrey's takedown of a swanky party and his unceremonious birth from the belly of a mechanical rhino easily rank as When Nature Calls' best sequences ("hot in these rhinos!"), they seem all the more out of place in the context of a threadbare story and plenty of otherwise unfunny gags.
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Specifically, it's as if the actor is doing an impression of himself - and an exaggerated, self-aware one at that - that takes the audience out of the movie and reduces the overall film to the sum total of laughs wrought from rehashing the same material. In fact, his turn in the second film has become synonymous with the reaction by rising stars to that kind of left-field success, which was subsequently seen in the second and third Austin Powers pictures and pretty much everything Adam Sandler has done since Happy Gilmore. While the movie's success made a sequel inevitable, Carrey's subsequently meteoric rise (following blockbuster turns in The Mask and Dumb And Dumber) did not ensure that the actor would be similarly committed to reprising the role. As such the determination and commitment he shows Ventura is palpable from the very first scene particularly in an era when comedy is distanced by irony and portrayals of oddballs seem paired with self-awareness, it's refreshing to watch a comedian leap headlong into the abyss with little care how his idiosyncratic behavior is received. One suspects that Carrey was sort of putting all of his eggs in one basket with the first film: after appearing in dozens of projects, including the funny if forgettable ventures Once Bitten and Earth Girls Are Easy, he'd reached the point where his career on the big screen seemed unlikely to take off. Suffice it to say that the plot isn't altogether important, except as a clothesline for some of the funniest moments ever committed to celluloid - all of which Carrey pulls off with hedonistic abandon.
Even though the central conceit could seemingly have come and gone within the span of a single 'Fire Marshall Bill' sketch, the talented comedian easily stretched out the story to feature length: Ventura is an animal-loving sleuth who finds himself on the trail of dolphin kidnappers when the Miami football team loses their prized mascot. The first film debuted in 1994, when Carrey was one of the A-listers among the sometimes lackluster ensemble on Fox's In Living Color. And while the film's sequel (not to mention the expansive spate of imitators and rip-offs) subsequently failed to live up to the first picture's promise, the Ace Ventura Deluxe Double Feature set is a worthy addition to any comedy fan's DVD library and a reminder what go-for-broke stupidity looks like at its true best. Not only did the movie mark Jim Carrey's move into silver screen superstardom, but it really catapulted comedy cinema into a new era - one forgoing the seeming reality of previous decades for an almost hermetically-sealed universe of goofs, weirdoes and eccentrics. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Despite the preponderance of '90s comedies generated from SNL skits and other small-screen ideas, Ace Ventura was an almost surprisingly historic moment in modern movies. The supporting cast includes Sean Young as ill-tempered Lois Einhorn, Udo Kier as the sinister Ronald Camp, and rapper Tone Loc as Ace's detective pal Emilio (Loc also wrote and performed a song for the closing credits). With the Super Bowl only two weeks away, will Ace be able to find Snowflake and the missing athletes in time to salvage the big game? Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was a surprise box-office smash and catapulted manic comedian Jim Carrey to stardom.
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However, Snowflake isn't the only Miami Dolphin who has gone missing several key members of the team also disappear, including quarterback Dan Marino (playing himself), who is spirited away while filming a TV commercial. When your dog, bird, or water-dwelling mammal disappears, who do you call? Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) is a low-rent private eye who specializes in recovering lost animals, so when Snowflake, the Miami Dolphins' aquatic mascot, is kidnapped, team representative Melissa Robinson (Courtney Cox) puts Ace on the case.