No doubt this film had its hilarious moments, but overall it is inferior to the first Ace Ventura flick.
In the first movie, Jim Carey acted over the top in a real city with a real football team. Miami may be crazy, but not as much as Jim Carey. Reality was Jim Carey's foil. And the joke was on reality. He also had his "down time," when he was real and not so wound up "alrighty then."
In this one, Jim Carey has done away with any resemblance of Ace Ventura to a real person. He's a cartoon character now, not just a zany free spirit. He's thrown away the "off" button. No rest for this guy, even when meditating. But that doesn't mean he's funny just because he's on.
The new movie doesn't take place in the real world, either. It's not Nairobi or Johannesburg or even a real rural Africa, but some fictional Africa where Apartheid seems intact, natives still fight wars with spears and there exists a species of "great white bat." Goofy native customs are made up solely for ridicule. In other words, Jim Carey has given up the first movie's one foot in reality and settled on a stereotypical fantasy Africa.
The problem is that when you don't know how a culture is in reality, it's hard to tell when the culture is being lampooned.
In the first movie, Jim Carey acted over the top in a real city with a real football team. Miami may be crazy, but not as much as Jim Carey. Reality was Jim Carey's foil. And the joke was on reality. He also had his "down time," when he was real and not so wound up "alrighty then."
In this one, Jim Carey has done away with any resemblance of Ace Ventura to a real person. He's a cartoon character now, not just a zany free spirit. He's thrown away the "off" button. No rest for this guy, even when meditating. But that doesn't mean he's funny just because he's on.
The new movie doesn't take place in the real world, either. It's not Nairobi or Johannesburg or even a real rural Africa, but some fictional Africa where Apartheid seems intact, natives still fight wars with spears and there exists a species of "great white bat." Goofy native customs are made up solely for ridicule. In other words, Jim Carey has given up the first movie's one foot in reality and settled on a stereotypical fantasy Africa.
The problem is that when you don't know how a culture is in reality, it's hard to tell when the culture is being lampooned.