Drafthouse Revisits the Year Jim Carrey Ruled the Box Office

Go back to 1994 with the three faces of Jim

There are two Jim Carreys. Not the actor and the artist. No, that's far too simple a division. The Jim Carrey who paints barbed political commentaries is the same Jim Carrey that probed loss on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, cracked open genius in Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, and then spilled his own creative guts on the floor for the self-incriminating making-of documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. No, that's one Jim Carrey, and the other is the rubber-faced maniacal comic who owned mid-Nineties box offices.

If all you've ever seen of Carrey is his tragicomic commentary on childhood television in Kidding, then strap in as the Alamo Drafthouse presents him at peak zaniness with Nobody Stopped Him: The 1994 Jim Carrey Triple Feature. 1994 was the year of the Carrey, as three of his films held the No. 1 spot, grossing a combined total of over $700 million globally. It may not be cool to admit it now, but everyone loved him. So here's what the Chronicle critics thought at the time. – Richard Whittaker


Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Opened: Feb 4. Global box office: $107 million. No. 1 for four weeks

"Manic energy is the term that comes most readily to mind when describing Ace Ventura. Carrey is relentless with his rubber-faced mugging and non-stop ad-libbing. With so many gags coming out of the chute, it's inevitable that a certain number of them will hit while most of the others will litter the ground like peanut shells at a circus." – Marjorie Baumgarten

*.5



The Mask

Opened: July 29. Global box office: $352 million. No. 1 for one week

"Carrey has always been an odd performer, what with his naturally elastic facial features and the manic, almost psychopathic energy that he obviously has bottled up inside him, but that works to his advantage in a film like this: portraying a living, breathing cartoon character is a natural for him." – Marc Savlov

**.5



Dumb and Dumber

Opened: Dec. 16. Global box office: $247 million. No. 1 for four weeks

"Carrey has all the physical moves Jerry Lewis had in his prime (and then some) and he has all the same willingness to take his humor wherever necessary in order to get the laugh, but, so far, he exhibits no trace of Lewis' obnoxious maudlin streak or the master's vain ambitions toward 'serious' filmmaking. In the tradition of Steve Martin's The Jerk, Carrey here plays a guy who just couldn't be any more stupid and not drown in a rainstorm." – Marjorie Baumgarten

**.5


Nobody Stopped Him: The 1994 Jim Carrey Triple Feature @The Alamo Ritz, Sunday, May 12, 3:45pm. Each ticket comes with a complimentary 24-page zine produced by Screen Slate. Tickets at www.drafthouse.com.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

Support the Chronicle  

READ MORE
More Special Screenings
Demons on the Set of <i>Cursed Films</i>
New series on Shudder asks why we want to believe in evil

Matthew Monagle, April 3, 2020

Where in Austin to Watch Hollywood’s Biggest Night
For those with red carpet fever

Beth Sullivan, Feb. 7, 2020

More Alamo Ritz
Noir City Film Festival Redefines the All-American Genre
Black, white, and red all over

Matthew Monagle, May 17, 2019

Blowing the Dust Off Punk Record Collections
Filmmaker Jason Blackmore on his new doc Records Collecting Dust II

Tim Stegall, Aug. 17, 2018

More by The Screens Staff
Top 10 Most Read Film Reviews of 2023
A-bombs and b-movies were what you were interested in this year

Dec. 23, 2023

2023 Oscar-Nominated Shorts: The Best of the Brief
Before the Academy votes, we pick our faves from the nominees

Feb. 17, 2023

KEYWORDS FOR THIS STORY

Special Screenings, Alamo Ritz, Dumb and Dumber, Nobody Stopped Him: The 1994 Jim Carrey Triple Feature, Jim Carrey, Dumb & Dumber, The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

MORE IN THE ARCHIVES
One click gets you all the newsletters listed below

Breaking news, arts coverage, and daily events

Keep up with happenings around town

Kevin Curtin's bimonthly cannabis musings

Austin's queerest news and events

Eric Goodman's Austin FC column, other soccer news

Information is power. Support the free press, so we can support Austin.   Support the Chronicle