~ Ace Ventura: Pet Detective ~ A Misguided Attempt at Family Comedy

Family films have always faced a big dilemma, as the name suggests for a movie to be considered in the genre of 'family' it needs to be able to connect and pleased every part of the family. Many filmmakers assumed that this meant they need to make their films to be more kid-friendly like Home Alone or The Karate Kid, both are perfectly adequate films that were clearly targeted more for kids than for adults and while there are a few pieces in the movie that can be enjoyed by adults or even teenagers, those moments were few and far between. There are also a lot of movies that able to blend the elements together well, giving a pleasant watch to all parts of the family, both the kids and the adults. movies like Up and Inside Out contain a deep emotional message that adult could appreciate but still provide more than enough bright colors, fantastical images, and ideas that a kid would enjoy.

Of course, on the other hand of the spectrum there exist family movies that while it is still kid friendly decides to pander more to the adult elements rather than the kid. This technique, when done right like in The Princess Bride, could provide a better more enjoyable watching experience. The adults won't feel too forced in watching a supposedly kid-friendly movie while the kids could possibly learn something to accentuate their growth if the message shown in the movie was delivered correctly and all part of the family can have a good time. But, when it was done wrong, well you get Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Released in 1994, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was a story of a, well, a private-eye for pets (obviously). It stars Jim Carrey as the titular character Ace and he was given the task of finding the kidnapped (sorry, PETnapped) mascot of the NFL Miami Dolphins. When it first released, the movie becomes somewhat of a sleeper hit, grossing for a total of $102. million dollars against a $15 million dollar budget. However, the critical reception was abysmal, the movie was criticized for its raunchiness, the childish hi-jinks and overall mean-spirited humor portrayed by the main character. 

My personal opinion, I don't think this movie was made with the intention to make it a family movie, the level of raunchiness presented and the final villain twist are perhaps a bit too much for kids, especially at that time. Hell they even cast Jim Carrey, who at that point in time has only played in mostly adult-oriented comedy film like Earth Girls are Easy even more in that same year he starts in The Mask and Dumb & Dumber, both are not kids-friendly by any mean and both are widely more successful. No, this movie was not made to be a family-friendly film, however, this movie begins to be accepted as family films thanks to one specific group of people, parents. Any parents anywhere in the world at some point in their life would just pick up the first movie on the shelf that seemed harmless enough to show to their kids. those parents see Ace Ventura at the video store (it was released in 1994 okay, BlockBuster still relevant then), saw the word Pet and just say 'eh good enough' because kids love pets as much as they like to annoyed the closest adult they can find.

So, that's why Ace Ventura would later be group under the category of family movies (even though it's not) and there were the weakness shows. As previously stated, a lot of the jokes did not connect to the kids' audience and even if the adults understand it, they won't like it because they felt it was inappropriate to show to children. Furthermore, there are not many scenes that could trigger the imaginative mind of children to keep them engaged. The scene where Ace walks into his apartment building and animals pop out everywhere and come to him was great but there are not enough of that. For a movie titled Pet Detective, other than that one scene there weren't that many animals seen.

If you want to take the family aspect of the movie it still doesn't work well, the main character was just too goofy to be taken any seriously even by the standard of a comedy movie. In many adult comedy, there is often exist a straight man opposite of the quirky main character to instill a little bit of realism in the story. In this movie, Ace Ventura has a too big of a quirky personality that the straight-man character just doesn't work and there were 2 of those in this film (Courteney Cox's Melissa and Tone Loc's Emilio, three if you count Dan Marino). This made the movie lose every sense of realism needed to keep the adults' viewer more engaged in the story.

However, this movie is not bereft of a good point. Jim Carrey, for all his downside, plays the titular character perfectly. Every line he spoke, every move he takes, the nonchalant swagger he shows, he basically commands every scene he's in. Every time he's on screen (and given he was the main character, he's on it a lot) you can't take your eyes off him. His facial expression, his body movement, he has truly taken this character to heart and made him, by far, the most entertaining parts of the movie. Yes, I did mention that his character basically engulfed every other character that he shares a scene with (except, surprisingly, Dan Marino) but well, what else is he gonna do, he's the titular character, this movie is about him so he plays it that way to keep your focus on the screen.

Overall, this movie is quite disappointing, It started quite well to engage you and then give you another one of Jim Carrey memorable performance but then it dwindles into a tedious detective movie, the mystery was not engaging and quite predictable, it takes to much liberty in how they could incorporate more animals into the movie, took itself to seriously despite its goofy premise and quite frankly, it becomes a little bit inappropriate towards the end. 

A nice guilty pleasure but keep this one locked up from your kids.

My Score: 4.5/10