Date: Fri 22-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-14

Quick Words:

Playing-Carrey-Ventura-sequel

Full Text:

(rev of "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," Now Playing, 12/22/95)

Carrey's Ventura: Lunacy Personified

By Trey Paul Alexander III

"Allllll righty then!," the noted catch phrase of Ace Ventura, pet detective,

is used in full force in the unfulfilling, but sporadically funny sequel, Ace

Ventura: When Nature Calls , which is playing at the Crown Cinema theatre in

Danbury.

Jim Carrey, now known about town - Tinseltown, that is - as the $20 million

man (his fee per picture), returns as the zany animal PI in a sequel to the

film that began his meteoric rise to super-stardom on the big screen. 1994's

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , starring Carrey, an actor whom at that point was

known as "the white guy on `In Living Color'" surprised all the pundits by

raking in over $100 million at the box office. Even more surprising, it

garnered decent reviews from critics and had many people wondering if this

Carrey fellow was for real.

Well, three more hits ( The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Batman Forever ) later,

Carrey has proven to be the real article. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls ,

Carrey's first sequel, has continued his string of hits, but it unfortunately

lacks the zing of originality its predecessor sustained so well.

Besides the obvious talent of Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura probably scored so well

with audiences because it introduced the comic actor in a role unlike any

recently seen on the screen. Plus, unlike recent trends among comedy films

(i.e., "Saturday Night Live" spin-offs), it was not an adaptation of any of

Carrey's characters from his time on "In Living Color."

In other words, there was a freshness to Ace Ventura which made paying the

ticket price seem worth it, whereas one has to question why anyone would pay

to see an "SNL" spin-off like Stuart Saves His Family . (It is unfathomable a

studio actually funded that movie thinking it might draw anyone to the

theatre; the skit does not even bring attentive eyes to the TV screen, where

it is free!)

However, When Nature Calls falls back too many times on the same gags that

made the first film soar. Although Carrey's kinetics and high-energy antics

are enough to keep one chuckling, the movie handicaps itself by relying on

punchlines which the audience can see coming a mile away because they just saw

them at the beginning of last year in Ace Ventura .

After a fairly clever opening sequence in which Ace goes bonkers after failing

to save a prized raccoon in a daring, mountain-top rescue attempt - a canny

spoof of Cliffhanger 's harrowing opening scene few audience members seem to

truly grasp - he retreats to a Tibetan monastery where he holes up away from

man. But his stay is brief when he is called upon by an English diplomat (Ian

McNeice) seeking Ace's services to help quell an impending war between two

African tribes over a missing, deified animal.

The plot - Ace must find the missing creature before war breaks loose - is

Sesame Street-simple, but then no one goes to a Jim Carrey flick for its

ingenious narrative. Moviegoers flock to see his manic lunacy unbridled, and

that is what they receive here. If only the script could have been as up to

the task as Carrey.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is rated PG-13 for profanity and recurrent

vulgarity. Although hidden among Carrey's tendencies to go for sophomoric

humor, there are several keenly conceived comic set-ups: one, hard to

describe, involves Ace and an attempt to escape from the insides of a

mechanical rhinoceros (don't ask); the other involves Carrey's former "In

Loving Color" castmate Tommy Davidson, who is a hoot as a warrior Ace must

face in man-to-man combat.