Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

★
The character of Ace Ventura behaves like a feral cat brought indoors for the first time. He runs around the room maniacally and expends a great deal of energy running around but going nowhere. Unlike a rescued feral cat, Ace Ventura remains forever untamed. That is to the movie's detriment. Like most viewers in 1994, I saw Ace Ventura: Pet Detective after having watched Jim Carrey's hilarious performances on In Living Color, where he was spot-on with his impersonations (Pee-wee Herman, Vanilla Ice) and original characters like Fire Marshall Bill. His schtick was perfect for a sketch television show, but his boundless enthusiasm unleashed on the big screen resulted in this vapid mystery movie with little going for it. At the time of this movie's release, I was only vaguely aware of box office totals as a measuring stick for success. After Ace Ventura became a huge hit, and after I saw it for the first time with its box office haul in mind, I realized that quality has nothing to do with how much money a movie makes.

Jim Carrey lost me right away. His childlike Ace Ventura opens the movie dressed like a deliveryman and kicks a box violently to its destination. When the recipient opens the door, he notices the damaged box and signs a form to report the box's condition. It was all a ruse for Ace to distract the tenant and recover a stolen puppy to return it to its rightful owner. These early scenes immediately establish the movie's agenda, which is to rely solely on Carrey's exuberant performance with only a flimsy plot to justify his presentation. If Carrey had a director who could channel his penchant for exaggerated facial gestures and contortionist bodily movements onto a pathway with purpose, then a movie like this could work. The sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, is better (that rhino scene!), while Liar Liar represented the pinnacle of Carrey's output (not counting serious efforts like The Truman Show and Man on the Moon). What we are watching is a clown show, and not a very good one.

Someone has stolen the Miami Dolphins' mascot Snowflake, and team administrator Melissa Robinson (Courtney Cox) hires Ace Ventura to find the abducted dolphin. He shows up and does his thing, searching for clues while annoying everyone around him. He carries himself as if permanently hooked up to a car battery, flailing around like a wild man. He finds some evidence and follows his leads, but he works alone. He gets no respect from the Miami Police Department, where lieutenant Lois Einhorn (Sean Young) despises him. Her last name is German for unicorn, a bit of trivia that foreshadows the movie's big twist, which is stupid regardless of her last name. With the Superbowl around the corner, Ace is on a deadline. His job is to follow these clues and find Snowflake before gameday. His investigation takes him to a small village where a disgraced football player and #1 suspect retired. We eventually learn the identity of the antagonist, who was hiding in plain sight the whole time using an assumed identity that would have been blown with a rudimentary background check.

The plot is negligible. The only time my eyes opened wide (actually a Vulcan eyebrow raise) was the appearance of Hector Salamanca actor Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad) as Ace's landlord. An admirer might point out that the movie was supposed to be over-the-top. It's a showcase for Jim Carrey's talents after all. Yes, that is true. Even then, an adherence to story structure and commitment to internal logic are still important. In Liar Liar, his talents complemented a story in which Jim Carrey's Fletcher Reede grew increasingly frantic over the wish placed upon him by his son. Desperation drove his breakdown. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective just turns Carrey loose to chew the scenery not just down to the bone but down to the bone marrow. He misses the mark many times, though I couldn't help but admire his commitment to go all in and let the audience sort out the mess. I don't know what any of the other actors thought of him, but Courtney Cox, Tone Lōc, Sean Young and Dan Marino (playing himself) hold their composure while watching this newcomer take the set by storm.

Jim Carrey appeared in movies before this. He had a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married, but In Living Color was the perfect venue for his talents. He confined his performances to short skits and played off actors and actresses who were equally as unconventional. His pairings with Damon Wayans (the Tag Team Evangelists) were golden. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a bad movie that had good promotion behind it. Trailers often featured a genuinely funny scene in which Ace warns everyone "Do not go in there!" in reference to the bathroom. Luckily, Carrey would execute a quick turnaround later in the year with The Mask, another movie like Liar Liar that better utilized the actor's skills. Some bowling lanes feature guard rails to prevent erratic balls from going into the gutter. Carrey's better movies feature a guard rail, so he can bounce off the walls all he wants and still score. For his first starring feature, someone neglected to put up the rails.

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