Drafthouse Revisits the Year Jim Carrey Ruled the Box Office
Go back to 1994 with the three faces of Jim
By The Screens Staff, Fri., May 10, 2019
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
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
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
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.