Ace Venture Trilogy (1994 - 2009)

Ace Venture Triology is a series of films released between 1994 and 2009 that tells the story of Ace Ventura, a self-styled Pet Detective, as he comedically sleuths his way through three animal-related cases of kidnap.

Overall Review Score

3 out of 10

Review

The Ace Ventura franchise is a series of films that attempted to horse-around with the comedic detective genre by basing its stories on a self-styled Pet Detective and his son (in the case of JR) who work to solve animal-related kidnappings. Ace Venture: Pet Detective (1994) kicks off the franchise by introducing Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) before taking the audience through a semi-decent storyline about a football team mascot, known as Snowflake, who is kidnapped before the Super Bowl. While the script is full of holes, Jim Carrey’s performance and his comedic delivery of witty one-liners including the infamous “all-righty then” makes the film watchable and, in-parts, somewhat enjoyable. Ace Venture: When Nature Calls (1995) sees Ace Ventura return in a somewhat silly fashion by parodying other well-know and more-serious films. While the initial amusement of the parodies relaxes the audience and, initially, sets up When Nature Calls with the potential to become a comedic success, it fails to deliver. Instead, it quickly becomes stale and uninteresting as it follows the same formulaic layout, prescriptive jokes and storyline of the first film in the series – to the extent it could have just been a carbon copy, rehashed reboot of the first. The final film in the series is Ace Ventura, Jr (2009), a direct to video spin off film that tells the story of Ace Ventura’s son. The film suffers from some major flaws including a very weak storyline, poor acting from all the cast and half-hearted; poorly thought out and dreadfully executed jokes that annoy the audience and destines the film for failure within the first 30 minutes. Furthermore, the film does not really explain the back-story instead it assumes the audience has watched Ace Ventura before – which would put off new comers to the series. Overall, despite the reasonably hopeful start of trilogy and Jim Carrey’s performance in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, the later films (When Nature Calls and JR) offered nothing new and just alienated the audience lowering the tone of the entire trilogy. If the studio, Director (s) and Producer (s) just stuck with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as a stand-alone rather than monopolise upon its success both the audience’s reaction and The Reviewers score would have been much higher.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) Score: 6 out of 10

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) Score: 3 out of 10

Ace Ventura, JR: Pet Detective (2009) Score: 0 out of 10

Ace Ventura Trilogy Overall Score: 3 out of 10

Comments:

Ace Ventura displays a rather quirky and comedic performance by Jim Carrey, that manages to keep the audience entertained with an outlandish story and memorable one liners. When Nature Calls, despite maintaining the same outlandish story and memorable one-liners from the first film is ultimately a rehashed storyline that comes across as a recycled idea that leads the audience to question whether or not these films have become the sum of Jim Carrey’s acting career. Ace Ventura, Jr, on the other hand, delivers nothing new to the franchise and had the Reviewers questioning not only why it was made but how anyone could of thought it was a good idea. Filled with blatant product placement, such as, Delta Airlines and Wheelies and the overuse of comedic gags Pet Detective Jr was not a pleasant film to watch. It tried too hard to fit into the comedy genre and ended up drowning the audience in poor comedic gags, which really distracted from the films equally abysmal story.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) Score: 7 out of 10

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) Score: 2 out of 10

Ace Ventura, JR: Pet Detective (2009) Score: 1 out of 10

Ace Ventura Trilogy Overall Score: 3 out of 10

Comments:

This trilogy started off well - Ace Ventura Pet Detective offered a unique, amusing and equally semi-entertaining story that was enhance massively by Jim Carry's funny facial expressions, comedic timing and ad-libbing. However, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Ace Ventura, Jr was poor imitations of the original film that came across as boring and unfunny in equal measures. Personally, I would recommend Ace Ventura Pet Detective as a comedic film because it showcases Jim Carrey at his funniest but would not recommend When Nature Calls or JR.

#comedy #jimcarrey