25 January 2011

Tuesday Cap - Vol. 17



Title: The Mask

Notes: The most perfect vehicle imaginable for Jim Carrey's personality, THE MASK is ironically restrained with his trademark insane shenanigans. I was sort of expecting balls-out crazy. What we got instead was 'mostly crazy' with enormous doses of LOONEY TUNES inspiration thrown in (not like I'm complaining about LOONEY TUNES - I love 'em). Still, THE MASK is a pretty damn good and immensely enjoyable flick, even all these years later [just watched it last night]. Perhaps it's greatest accomplishment with me is it triggered a intense desire to own a dog, specifically Milo. How awesome is that dog? Awesome! Forget Shiloh and Lassie, Milo is 'da bomb diggity! Other great thing about THE MASK: Cameron Diaz. Absolutely, she has a thankless, dimensionless role, but holy crap, that woman is hot! What? I'm supposed to write something more intelligent than that? Surely not! I saw this movie as a child, loved it, and haven't seen it in a long, long while. Revisiting it again, the same amount of fun and, dare I say, insanity is still there, asking me to put the mask on myself. Now that'd be fun. And no, I haven't seen SON OF MASK, and I'm not sure there's much in this universe that would compel be to do so. That's just crazy talk.

Discuss: Do the visual effects still pass 17 years later? Is this Jim Carrey's best performance? Did the Big Bad at the end remind you of The Hulk at all? Wouldn't it be fantastic to have Milo as a dog? Is the reason this takes place at Edge City because the filmmakers wouldn't want to piss off authority figures for how completely stupid and lazy they're portrayed in the movie?

2 comments:

Fletch said...

Mmmmm, the world's introduction to Diaz. She was indeed smoking...the sad news is that she's never looked better since. That's not to say that she's ever really looked bad (coughMalkovichcough), but if she's a 9.5 in Something About Mary or Charlie's Angels, she's a 10 in The Mask.

Don't ever get a Jack Russell Terrier. I've never had one, and I'm sure there are many great things about them, but christ on a stick do they have energy. Waaaaaayyy too much. Unless you're a hyper-kinetic, ADD-addled person, I can't imagine them NOT driving you nuts.

I always thought that The Mask was fun, but it was still second to Ace Ventura (the first one only) in terms of early Carrey work. The movie itself isn't all that great, but has more than a few memorable scenes and effects. That said, it's a cartoon, and a pretty fun one at that.

Haven't seen it in awhile...you tell me, do the effects hold up at all?

Andrew Simon said...

Um, can I say a Hell Yes! to everything you wrote about Diaz? HELL YES! Only odd thing is, despite how much they sexualized her in CHARLIE'S ANGELS, I don't think her hotness level was as high, as, say, MARY. On FX the other day, WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS was on, and although she still looked fine indeed, to see how she was in THE MASK, it was one of those 'Holy potatoes, Adam West!' moments.

I should probably know this, but what ACE VENTURA is the one where he 'births' himself from a robotic animal thingy?

The effects mostly hold up, except when he's bouncing down hallways or moving in a rapid motion, then it's pretty bad. But like you said, it's basically a cartoon, so I can't necessarily fault the film for choppy SPFX work here and there.

Got it: no matter how cute they are, DON'T get a Terrier. Damn. Alright, guess I'm gonna have to go the Golden Retriever route, then.