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    Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" has some funny moments, which I attribute to the comedic talents of star Jim Carrey. For my taste, too many of the jokes are lame and Jim Carrey's character is so irritating that the movie doesn't work overall. Ace Ventura (Carrey) is a private investigator that specializes in pet and animal cases in Miami, Florida. The eccentric would-be gumshoe is the laughingstock of the police department but he gets a big break when Snowflake, a bottlenose dolphin and the mascot of the Miami Dolphins is kidnapped. Being the “expert” in that subject, Ace is now on the case.

    I know this movie has a large cult following, but I just don’t get it. From the get-go, I can’t get behind this movie because the protagonist is unlikeable. Ace comes off as a nutcase; not really as someone who cares about animals but as someone who dislikes humans and in a desperate attempt to get money fell into the pet detective business. There really isn't an ounce of sweetness in the film and of course, when the love plot gets introduced you’re supposed to cheer for the underdog, but he’s not an underdog because he doesn’t get any respect, he’s an underdog because of his own mistakes. You would think that to counterbalance Carrey's really energetic mugging at the camera the movie would try and say something about how pets can mean a lot to people, sometimes as much as their own children (why else would you offer a reward to get it back? ) but the "Pet" part of "Pet Detective" really doesn't come up often. A kidnapped dolphin is a big deal that the police would be very involved in, to me it feels like the plot should have been about something that everyone else would feel is completely inconsequential, but turns out to have a lot of impact because of the emotional attachment or some big conspiracy that is only discovered by the crackpot detective.

    A lot of the jokes are obvious and feel dated (A scene where Ace sneaks around to the "Mission: Impossible" theme feels like Carrey was just goofing around on the set and they added the music to turn it into a joke) and often just go on too long (towards the end when Ace has to take down several henchmen by himself and continuously shouts jokes at them for example) It all culminates into a joke that reveals the twist of a much better movie, involves a big revelation about the villain and is about as convincing as Courteney Cox playing a single woman desperate to find a boyfriend.

    Watching the movie you can tell that Jim Carrey has a lot of comedic talent and that he just needs to find the right footing to be great. Like so many comedians when he’s given free range to just “be funny” what he actually desperately requires is a director that can balance out the improve antics and know when to reign things in. It’s an interesting (if somewhat irritating) entry in Carrey’s career and there’s got to be something here for some people because it’s a popular film. I guess I might say “Hey, maybe you want to check this out” but I find it hard to do so. I didn’t find many laughs here and in fact found it a chore to sit through. Maybe I’ve prematurely outgrown “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”. (On DVD, January 29, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  25.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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