When speaking critically about any of Jim Carrey’s films, there’s only one burning question that really needs to be asked: “Is it funny?” Keeping this in mind, let’s cut right to the chase. If you liked the first installment of the sure-to-be-long-running Ace Ventura series, chances are very good you’ll enjoy the second. The most over-the-top of Carrey’s vehicles, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls will definitely not win any new converts, but let’s face it, the man’s got plenty of fans already. The plot is pure nonsense – something to do with our heroic pet detective traveling to Africa to recover a sacred albino bat – but it nicely manages to set up a non-stop barrage of silly antics which, when you think about it, is all a “plot” is good for anyway in a Jim Carrey movie. Director Oedekerk, for the most part, has a nice sense of pacing, and also brings a scope that wasn’t in the first film. Occasionally, signs of the film’s on-set production problems seem all too obvious and, by the picture’s third act, the movie has simply exhausted itself. Still, to look too far beyond “Is it funny?” is probably a mistake, especially when one considers that the majority of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls delivers those huge mass-audience fits of laughter that often leave the next couple of gags unheard or unnoticed. For Carrey, every moment of screen time presents a comic opportunity and every scene is a potential set-piece, so it’s hardly surprising that he wastes no time before letting the jokes fly fast and furious. From the hilarious opening parody of Cliffhanger to Ace’s mid-film wrestling match with a hungry alligator (in a memorable moment, Ace slaps the attacking animal around with its own stubby arms, while reciting that classic childhood taunt, “Quit hitting yourself! Quit hitting yourself!”), Carrey is in top form here, giving a wildly confident, physically draining performance with all the stops pulled out. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls has its fair share of problems – like the aforementioned third act and the fact that Carrey so monopolizes the screen that his co-stars are often left with nothing to do – but the movie is funny, sometimes side-splittingly so. And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
This article appears in January 24 • 2003.