Review of Son of the Mask (2005) by Kyle20Ellis — 27 Sep 2015

The original film with Jim Carrey was a clever and hilarious film, with a very sophisticated and dynamic visual style. What a way to ruin such a fantastic film, with such a poor sequel? It does make me sad. I will give some credit, it isn't quite the worst movie I have ever seen, Disaster Movie, Superbabies:Baby Geniuses 2 and Home Alone 4 were worse, but judging by how really poor the film is, that is not saying much.

Let me start by saying the script was quite terrible, very clichéd and stale, with nothing new to expand from its predecessor. And the direction from Laurence Guterman, who also directed Cats and Dogs, which is much more decent, was close to incompetent. The story about the magical mask falling into the hands of a cartoonist who fathers a son is rather substandard and takes a while to get going.

The special effects and animation attempts to spark some imagination, but it completely lacks the visual style that made the original so endearing to look at. Intead the whole film looks cheap in comparison and looks like it was made for TV, despite the valiant attempts of the animators to make it look good. The casting is uninspired to say the least. Jamie Kennedy as the cartoonist lacks charisma, and I will say I found the baby really creepy. Alan Cumming is a very talented actor, and has been in some great films namely the wonderful 1994 version of Black Beauty where his voice over of the beloved horse was note perfect. Here he can't do anything with his villainous role, which is so badly underwritten it's not hard to see why. And how Bob Hoskins got dragged into this I shall never know.

All in all, I can see why people say this movie is bad, it is. Not just because it is not a true sequel but also it is substandard in comparison to its much superior predecessor in terms of sophistication and quality.