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Ace Ventura Jr.

Josh Flitter

In 1994, In Living Color cast member, Jim Carrey, captured the comedy zeitgeist of the time. What was supposed to be a small film, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, became a huge hit due to Carrey’s antics. In that year alone, he turned out three comedy classics, along with Ace, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber. With the exception of Liar, Liar, Carrey has never been able to return to that level of comic genius again. Yet, the one thing that I have always liked about Carrey, besides from the pretending to talk out his backside, is that except for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, which he did as a favor to friend Steve Oedekerk who gave him a break by casting in him as the lead in the original Ace, is that he refuses to do sequels. Unlike Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, or Harrison Ford who return to a franchise every time their career appears in trouble, Carrey has stood his ground up until now.

Hollywood loves franchises because they have a built in audience. As with most things in life, audiences would rather go with the safe and familiar than take a chance on something new. A grey McDonald’s hamburger, that looks like it has been left in the street during rush hour traffic, is always going to be more popular than a feast for the same price, at a mom and pop greasy spoon. For the most part, sequels do about 85 percent of the business of the previous film. Minimizing risks is not a bad way to make sure you keep your job, if you are an executive at a major studio, and the best way to do that is to keep turning out a brand. Rambo might be wearing an adult diaper by his last adventure but as long as he earns enough to buy daddy a new Beemer, he’ll put a knife in his arthritic hand and push his wheelchair out before the cameras. It is why the public has been forced to endure such cinematic abortions as Oliver’s Story, Highlander 2: The Quickening, The Sting II, Caddyshack II, Daddy Day Camp, The Next Karate Kid, Be Cool, Weekend At Bernie’s II, and Staying Alive.

Still, if there were a Hall of Shame for Bad Sequels, Jim Carrey franchises that try to continue without Jim Carrey returning for the sequel, would have a wing all to itself. Like a hungry dog trying to get at a pork chop, Hollywood executives failed to understand that what made Jim Carrey films successful, was Jim Carrey himself. When Carrey refused to return, they should have let the idea die. In the summer of 2003, New Line, with misleading posters, tried to buffalo the American public that Jeff Daniels and Carrey had returned to the Dumb and Dumber territory with Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. Even casting pros, Mimi Rogers, and funny man, Eugene Levy in minor roles could not save this turkey. The first film in the franchise took in $247,275,374 worldwide. The prequel just $39,267,515. Two years later, New Line took a stab at it again with Son of the Mask. The original film was one of the biggest films of that year taking down $351,583,407. A low rent Jim Carrey wannabe, Jamie Kennedy, was cast in the lead, and because everyone loves babies, a CGI baby would have the power of the mask. The darkness of the first film was scrubbed away and American audiences plunked down just a little over $17 million at the box office to see it. Kind of hurts when $84 million went out the window just in production costs. Carrey’s biggest box office success ever was 2003’s Bruce Almighty. With its feel good message, $484,592,874 rained down on Universal Studios. When Carrey rejected a chance for a second bite at the almighty apple, Universal turned to Steve Carell, Bruce’s foil in the first movie and fresh off the box office success of last summer’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin. With a few rewrites, former newscaster Evan was the central character, a modern Noah, to appeal to the family values crowd. What could go wrong? It was the most expensive comedy ever made as production costs spiraled out of control. By the time it hit theaters, the CGI heavy Evan Almighty had already topped the $175 million mark in production costs. It would have literally taken an act of God for it to make its money back and God was nowhere to be found. While it topped the $100 million box office mark, it was still one of the biggest bombs of the year. Zero for three.

Now when a child touches a hot stove, they usually learn after the first time. Even I learned after three tries that maybe I should not cut my own hair as a child and I was not bright. Hollywood is now trying to make a Jim Carrey movie without Jim Carrey for the fourth time. While Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls was a cinematic turd in a punchbowl, thanks to Carrey’s presence, it actually made substantially more money at the box office than the first film. Even though there was a cartoon in the interim, it has been thirteen years since movie audiences have seen Ace. Time to dust off the franchise. But what is Morgan Creek Productions going to do without their lead in tow? Answer: Destroy the career of a kid, Josh Flitter, who has had minor roles in two Jim Carrey movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Horton Hears a Who! Who has been cast to play Ace Ventura Jr. All righty then. What is the plot and how do they get rid of daddy Ace?

After his African adventure, Ace returned to Florida and married girl friend Melissa (Ann Cusack. Sound familiar? John and Joan’s little known older sister.) Soon the couple was blessed with a bouncing baby boy. Yet, America’s favorite pet gumshoe vanished while on a remote case. With the help of Pa Walton, Ralph Waite, as Grandpa Ventura, Melissa gets a job as a zookeeper and is trying to get on with her life. One problem, little Ass, I mean Ace, is a chip off the old comic block. He is the pet detective of the 7^th grade, helping friends recover their missing pets and, of course, with great comic misadventures just like dear old dad. What twelve-year-old does not like to make his backside talk? When a baby panda vanishes and his mom is arrested for the crime, it is Ace Jr., with the help of his friend Laura (Emma Lockhart – the young Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins), to the rescue. Will Ass Jr., I mean Ace Jr., solve the crime and save his mother? Will he bring the real thief to justice? Most importantly, will I be able to chat up the hot blond behind the snack bar so I do not have to waste another half hour of my life watching this film?

Except for Pa Walton (and who remembers “The Waltons”), the cast is made up entirely of unknowns and actors who will never be seen again except at a Carlos O’Kelly’s near you and that is why no matter how bad this film is, it will make money. With almost no production costs, given the DVD market, airplane and cable rights, it is almost impossible for it to lose money. Given that bad movies can be shipped in and out of theaters in the fall before anyone notices because kids are starting back to school, enough kids will be suckered into renting it because they loved the first film. Do I even have to go into detail about how bad this film is? If you are stupid enough to get burnt for a fourth time, you deserve it. Hopefully Hollywood will learn after this film. Although I have heard that there is a rumor of a sequel to Liar, Liar being developed, but then again maybe I am lying.

Verdict: Awful