Review of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) by Kai82 — 02 Apr 2021

The sequel surpassed the original movie. It is full of humor in Jim Carrey style and you see how much fun he had. The humor ranges from parody, jabs at other movies, being respectless, silly (the good kind) up to some things that can be used in cartoons.

Like with all of Jim Carrey movies the enjoyment depends on how much you like or enjoy his style. It is the kind that can be a masterpiece for some or awful garbage for others at the same time and I will not disagree with either opinion as I can clearly see why people come to both conclusions.

For me this is pure fun entertainment and a movie that takes itself not that serious if it can increase the fun (Picking the “right” car scene would be my best example). After the starting scenes Ace Ventura is in a Tibetan monastery in China.

There he is visited by Fullton Greenwall who works in the African country of Nibia (fictional by the way or lets say near Wakanda ;-). He wants to recruit him to find a missing holy animal of the Wachati tribe which is even more important then it seems.

Here I stop to avoid spoilers. The story is engaging and a good vehicle to carry the humor through the movie. It plays with tropes and stereotypes in enjoyable ways. In is deeper than it needed to be for a comedy.

The main appeal is however the humor. Jim Carrey optimized his style and the humor works so perfect that I did not remember a misstep even after rewatching the movie several times. There are so many good laughs and nothing is sacred even Ace Ventura himself.

While for me all jokes work I must repeat that Jim Carrey’s style of humor is not for everyone. Be warned with this. For the cast: Jim Carrey mastered his style and his performance carries the movie.

You see the fun he had and recently I discovered that some of the scenes were improvised on the spot by him and so good that these were not cut. Ian McNeice as Fulton Greenwall is the polar opposite. He plays a no nonsense character with the calm and emotionless British mannerism of high society.

Maynard Eziashi as Prince Ouda is Ace guide and sidekick in some scenes. An excellent performance and has often side blows to stereotypes. I praise Simon Callow playing Vincent Cadby as he is a such an enjoyable parody and representation of tropes and stereotypes too.

Remarkable but with smaller roles are Tommy Davidson and Danny D. Daniels which I wont spoil but also never forget. The whole cast deliver a great comedy performance. I praise writer and director Steve Oeddekerk for the ideas, playing with tropes / stereotypes and for the humor.

Visually the movie feels and sounds like you expect from an Ace Ventura movie in Africa. They use the viewers expectations and play with tropes here too. The soundtrack has a lot of familiar names and delivers (Not the top of the top but still some well recognized artists).

Overall this movie was a hilarious attack on our risible muscles. It is pure fun if you like this kind of humor and one of my favorite Jim Carry performances. Rewatched it quite some times and still enjoy it.