Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Year: 1995
Directed By: Steve Oedekirk
Written By: Jack Bernstein

RYAN’S REVIEW

While I suppose you can call the first Ace Ventura movie vaguely serious, the second is much sillier and sometimes seems stupid.  However, I think this one is the funnier movie, the lack of seriousness allows Jim Carrey full range to be as funny as he wants to be with less limitation.  I think this film serves more as a platform for Carrey’s own crazy style of comedy than it does as a traditional film.  That works though, there is nothing wrong with that.  Jim Carrey is a seriously funny guy and a really talented entertainer.  He doesn’t miss a beat in this movie, it is relentlessly funny.  Jim Carrey is a different person these days, he has become a different person in his stardom.  While he is still a fantastic actor he just has a different style, he has evolved.  In this movie we see Jim Carrey as he was when he first burst onto the scene as someone who did something different. He was a new comedian with adult ADD and his comedy seemed to never end, somewhere along the line it was as if someone gave him Ritalin.  He calmed down, and part of that explosive relentless comedian was lost as he showed us he could do more, he showed us range, and that he was more than just a wacky guy.  Jim Carrey has had an excellent career, but sometimes I miss the guy he used to be, the days when he really was Ace Ventura.

This movie is hilarious, it has some of the all time funniest scenes I’ve ever seen.  “So you must be the Monopoly guy,” that scene will always make me laugh, and it barely compares to Ace Ventura being born from that Rhino along the safari trail.  It’s rare, and even was in the mid 90s, that a sequel is made only a year after the original film.  It’s even rarer that a sequel is rushed out and turns out funnier than its predecessor but that is the case with this film.  As I mentioned in my review of the first Ace Ventura, I think Steve Oedekerk is a better director than Tom Shadyac.  I haven’t really liked anything else Shadyac has done besides the first Ace Ventura, but Oedekerk directed, wrote, and starred in a different film that is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.  So I don’t think it’s coincidental that he made a funnier Ace Ventura movie.  I still hope that one day Jim Carrey quits taking whatever medicine is calming him down and we see a third Ace Ventura film.  Great movie totally worth your time, SHAKAKA!!

AMBER’S REVIEW

The sequel. To me, this one is funnier than the second one. It is even more outrageous and Jim Carrey really comes into the role. The hair, the attitude and the outrageous sayings are all better than the first. In this one he travels to Africa to save a bat, an animal he is afraid of, and spends the the movie in search of the animal while interacting with tribal villagers. When I was younger we used to recite the words to the entire film. We loved it so much. To this day I will even use some of the sayings or recite a scene when I am hanging out with my brother. One of our favorites is “Bumble Bee Tuna.”

What are your favorite Ace Ventura lines?

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Year: 1994
Directed By: Tom Shadyac
Written By: Jack Bernstein

RYAN’S REVIEW:

I remember going to see this movie in the theater when I was ten years old in 1994.  My dad was a huge Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino fan so naturally he took us to see the film.  While I may have been too young to understand certain scenes in this film I still thought it was hilarious and it has remained funny for the past 17 years.  This movie made Jim Carrey a superstar, he had a busy and successful year in 1994 also starring The Mask and Dumb and Dumber that year but it all started with Ace Ventura.  Jim Carrey owns this role, and the success of the film is his alone.  I am not a big fan of Tom Shadyac and I happen to think Steve Oedekerk made an even funnier movie the following year.  Courtney Cox does her job, she looks good in this movie and that is all that was really required of her.  When I was 10 years old I couldn’t really appreciate how cool it was for the Miami Dolphins to collaborate so well with a movie.  You don’t see that in mainstream films very often but I think it worked really well here. Ace Ventura still makes me laugh, and I think it will continue to do so for a very long time.  Excellent movie that is totally worth your time.

AMBER’S REVIEW

My parents didn’t watch a lot of television when I was growing up. They were very guarded about what they let us watch and because they never rented anything we only had choices of what was on the meager VHS rack. This movie was one of them. My dad didn’t watch a lot of movies, but he loved Jim Carey, and so did we. This movie is very nostalgic for me and takes me back to lying on the couch with my brother and sister and laughing so hard at Jim Carey. To this day I can recite most of the lines from both movies verbatim. The movie still continues to make me laugh, and I feel I can laugh harder knowing that Jim Carey went on to become an amazing actor, not just another comedian. I love that Courtney Cox played the love interest and she played the part great. This movie is hilarious, and I would be surprised if you haven’t seen it already, but in that rare instance…see this one and the sequel, I find the sequel even more funny.