Jim Carrey has become one of the most recognized faces in the world. It is precisely because of his face that he has achieved fame. His rubbery visage and penchant for wild and extreme behavior has given him a notoriety he delights in. He has developed a repertoire of oddball characters to the pleasure of audiences everywhere. Not everyone is impressed and you’ll find people who are thoroughly anti-Carrey and his style of comedy but the majority has voted him into our lives. His humour is far from high brow, tasteless in many cases, but he aims to amuse and, for most people, he does just that.

Born in New Market, Ontario, Canada on January 17th, 1962 to a working class family that never had it easy. Growing up poor was tough for young Jim Carrey. While in his teens he had to take a job as a janitor when his father lost his job. He had to juggle both school and work, school eventually lost out and he dropped out. He describes himself as being very angry at this time in his life yet one good thing came out of it. He developed a tremendous sense of humour to help him cope and to shield his anger from the world. He was a loner who claims he didn’t have any friends because he didn’t want any. Between school and work there just wasn’t much time for a childhood. At 15 though, he had enough time to start performing at Yuk Yuks a famous Toronto comedy club where he began to perfect his shtick. He moved to LA and did the club circuit there. He came to the attention of Rodney Dangerfield and was put on his tour. For many years, he lived in obscurity by starring in some Clint Eastwood movies, and doing impressions in the Comedy Store. In 1987, he got married with Melissa Womer and got a daughter, Jane Carrey. Jim Carrey got his big break in 1990, when he landed a role on the hip new sketch comedy show “In Living Color” which boasted a cast of African-Americans and Carrey, the sole white guy. The show was an extreme show meant to answer SNL’s dominance of late night t.v. variety shows. While there, Carrey perfected many characters, most notoriously “Fire Marshal Bill” who always went up in a blaze. The sketch was yanked when critics claimed that it encouraged kids to play with fire. The controversy put Carrey’s name in the headlines for the first time.

He broke into feature films, and into the collective unconscious of the world, in a single successful year, 1994. It was the Year of the Funny Face. First there was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a surprise hit that showcased Carrey’s now signature wacky style. Next came The Mask, a role that seemed tailor-made for him and was a hit with audiences. As if he hadn’t made an impression yet, there was still Dumb and Dumber which was released during the holiday season and ended up on top. Jim Carrey was in the limelight now and he hasn’t looked back since. Since that famous year Carrey has, dare we say it…, slowed down a bit. His films have come out less often but have continued to make waves if not quite of the caliber as previously. There was Batman Forever, in which he inhabited the role of the Riddler. Then there was a sequel to Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls which didn’t quite recapture the sparkle of the original. Next came The Cable Guy, Carrey’s big ticket 20 million dollar film and fell with a quick and resounding thud. The film featured Carrey’s first foray into a more serious type of humour. Audiences were not impressed and it was his first taste of failure. He quickly bounced back though. In 1997 he starred in Liar Liar. The film was a tremendous success with crowds everywhere and put him back on top. It also brought his salary back up 20 million.

The future looks good for Jim Carrey, he has developed a legion of devoted fans who love his wild style of physical comedy. He has done several movies after Liar Liar, such as The Truman Show and Man on the moon, but all of that and future movies you’ll just have to read on some other site. He has proven his ability to weather a storm and come out on top, important for any celebrity. Carrey has come a long way from his unhappy childhood and in fact seems to be living it now. Canada has been producing fine comedic talents for years, and Jim Carrey is definitely the best of the new breed.

There are things that most of human kind have in common. Family, friends, car, house, job. It’s the american way of life that Truman Burbank (geniously played by Jim Carrey) has adopted. That’s also what most of us have in our lives. How would you react when you discover that all of that is fake. Which means you have nothing in life. Except the fact that you are the most popular man in the universe. In other words, you’re a commercial product. That’s one of the visions of our society that The Truman Show wants us to see. The story begins at day 10909 of a live to the world broadcasting soap opera where the star, Truman, doesn’t know he is. We can see that everything (except him) is hollywood fake stuff. Then we discover two obsessions that are in the nature of Truman: His secret love for a high school girl who disappeared in Fiji island, and his passion for travelling and exploring. Unfortunately, that’s not what the creator of the show, Christof (Ed Harris) has planned for the show. That’s why he tries everything make Truman forget his passions. (Some of these scenes includes funny stuff). The fact is that the subtility of the creators is pretty poor. And they also do a lot of mistakes on the set.

This makes Truman starting to doubt about the world around him and developping paranoia (he couldn’t expect how right he is). Ans as the proofs continue to show off in front of him, Truman decides to get away and to go right where his obsessions are. The movie, wonderfully directed by Peter Weir (Death Poets Society) makes us laugh, cry, but most of all, think. Carrey’s character is similar to Tom Hanks’s Forrest Gump. An honest man, with childish reactions and who doesn’t know anything about what’s going on around him. There are a lot of lessons of life in the flick. Maybe even more than the production team expected when they did it. First of all, when you are born to accomplish something and you really want it, nothing (even the biggest storms), nothing can stop you. It shows us also that you cannot control human emotions. Christof wanted Meryl(Laura Linney) to be Truman’s love and created the most similar character for Truman so he can love. Unfortunately, his heart was for another cast member called Sylvia (Natasha McLehone) which wasn’t expected by anyone. Another lesson is in the choice that Truman has to do at the end of the movie. It shows us that nothing (even fake perfection) is as good and exciting as reality…

All those 20th century inventions such as Virtual reality, video games, internet and most of all, television are just a way for people to hide their fear of real life. Why would you play baseball on a Nintendo when you can go with your friends in a field doing a real game? Because most of us are shy, of just don’t want to get up and try. Spending his life in front of a tv set makes you a nobody. It entertains, but you have no life, dude! Anyway, some people also see in The Truman Show a kind of myth where the Christof is a god and Truman his creation. Just like in such famous stories as Frankenstein, we see that when the creator loses the control of his creation (when no more cameras can get Truman), he will try to eleminate it (the weather options). Also the fact that the society are too hungry about other people’s private life. When you look at such publications as The National Enquier of tv’s Entertainment Tonight, you see how crazy we are to consume this. And I am sure there are a lot more meanings in Jim Carrey’s masterpiece, which is also one of the smartest movies that Hollywood ever made… (movie review by: Louis Plamondon )

Year: 1998
Opening week-end: 31,400,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 109,000,000$
Produced by: Scott Rudin and Andrew Niccol
Co-Starring: Ed Harris, Laura Linney and Noah Emmerich
Directed by: Peter Weir
Studio/Video: Paramount Pictures
Role: Truman Burbank
Salary: 12,000,000$
Time Length: 109 minutes
Mins.Rated: PG

 
I am gradually developing a suspicion, or perhaps it is a fear, that Jim Carrey is growing on me. Am I becoming a fan? In “Liar Liar” he works tirelessly, inundating us with manic comic energy. Like the class clown who’ll do anything for a laugh, Carrey at one point actually pounds himself with a toilet seat. And gets a laugh.

The movie is a high-energy comeback from 1996′s dismal “The Cable Guy”, which made the mistake of giving Carrey an unpleasant and obnoxious character to play. Here Carrey is likable and sympathetic, in a movie that will play for the whole family, entertaining each member on a different level (he’s a master at combining slapstick for the kids with innuendo for the grownups).

Carrey plays a yuppie lawyer whose career is on the rise but whose wife (Maura Tierney) has divorced him and whose 5-year-old son (Justin Cooper) no longer believes a word he says. “My dad’s a liar”, the kid says in class. “You mean a *lawyer,*” the teacher says. The kid shrugs: whatever. Carrey is so wrapped up in cases that he even misses the kid’s birthday party. So the kid closes his eyes and blows out the candles on the cake and makes a wish: He hopes that for one day his dad won’t tell a lie.

The wish comes true. It is, of course, impossible to be a lawyer (or any other form of adult) if you are not prepared to lie, and so the day goes badly. He’s defending the respondent in a big-bucks divorce case; his client (Jennifer Tilly) is a buxom sex bomb who is charged with one count of adultery but insists, somewhat proudly, that the actual count is closer to seven. This is not the sort of information you want to give to an attorney who cannot lie.

The screenplay, by Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, takes this simple premise and applies it to the lawyer’s workday. I can imagine the idea getting old really fast with a lesser actor, but Carrey literally throws himself into the story. Struggling to force himself to tell a lie, he goes mano a mano with a blue felt-tip pen. He tries to say it’s red. He fails. His rubber face contorts itself in agony, but he *cannot* tell a lie.

There’s trouble in the courtroom. “How are you today, counselor?” asks the judge. “I’m a little upset about a bad sexual episode last night,” he replies. He can’t even plead his client’s case, since he knows it’s false. As the judge and courtroom look on, Carrey climbs the walls and rolls on the floor, and finally escapes to the men’s room, where in an astonishing display of comic energy he mugs himself, hoping to get the case continued.

The movie orchestrates one situation after another in which he has to tell the truth. “Do you know why I pulled you over?” a traffic cop asks. “That depends on how long you were following me”, Carrey says. In one of the best sequences, he disrupts a meeting at his firm by telling the complete truth about everyone present.

The movie has been directed by Tom Shadyac, who also did “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, and it’s mostly content to plant the camera and watch as Carrey goes bananas. He’s a remarkable physical comedian. At one point, during a truth-telling session with his son, the kid twists his mouth out of shape and asks, “If I keep making this face, will it get stuck that way?”

“Absolutely not!”, says Carrey. “In fact, there are people who make a nice living doing that.” (movie review by: Roger Ebert)

Year: 1997
Opening week-end: ??,???,???$
Total Box-Office Gross: ??,???,???$
Produced by: Brian Grazer
Co-Starring: Maura Tierney, Jennifer Tilly and Cary Elwes
Directed by: Tom Shadyac
Studio/Video: Univesal Pictures
Role: Fletcher Reid
Salary: 21,000,000$
Time Length: ?? minutes
Mins.Rated: PG-13

As the title character of THE CABLE GUY (Columbia, PG-13), Jim Carrey thrusts out his jaw and speaks in a sulky, nagging lisp, as if he were Jay Leno’s infantile brother. Has any other performer derived this much joy from acting this undignified? Carrey plays a pathological leech, a cable-TV serviceman, the cable guy, who latches onto a yuppie customer (Matthew Broderick) and convinces himself that the poor sap is his new best buddy. Calling himself Chip Douglas (from My Three Sons, one of the shows that haunt his TV-addled brain), he invades Broderick’s home and office, leaving endless messages on his answering machine, crashing – and I mean crashing – his amateur basketball game, bombarding him with pop-psych homilies on how to win back his girlfriend, and, in general, turning his pursuit of “friendship” into a thinly disguised act of sadistic terrorism.

Some of this is amusing, if overly familiar, in the renegade-nuisance style of comedies like What About Bob? and Neighbors. Then comes a scene that may shock you into laughter (or out of it). The cable guy follows Broderick’s girlfriend (Leslie Mann) to a restaurant and, posing as a restroom attendant, proceeds to kick the living hell out of her unctuous date, smashing him onto the floor and sticking a live blow dryer in his mouth. For a few moments, Carrey blurs the line between comic dementia and real dementia. He’s funny and scary at the same time; his demons have come out to play.

Usually, we’re on Jim Carrey’s side, grooving on his mind warps, cracking up at his cracked-mirror happy face. But in The Cable Guy, our sympathies are divided between Broderick, the nice-guy hero, and Carrey, the deranged sociopathic imp. The star has never played this single-minded a pest before, and that may be one reason The Cable Guy lacks the exhilaration of his best work.

Reined in by the character’s evil lisp, his stunted camp hostility, Carrey can’t fling his imagination a thousand ways as he did in the second Ace Ventura movie (or, more recently, on Saturday Night Live). The director, Ben Stiller, works with craftsmanly precision, but too much control can dampen madness. When Carrey grabs the microphone of a karaoke machine and launches into a nerdy-ecstatic rendition of Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love,” part of the release is that the scene serves no real purpose. You feel that he couldn’t hold himself back; he had to sing that song (and sing it that magnificently badly). The Cable Guy needed more highs like that one. The movie flirts with a darker Carrey, but, ironically, most of it gives us a safer Carrey, an anarchist caught in routines too patterned to let him break loose. (movie review by: Entertainment Weekly)

Year: 1996
Opening week-end: 19,800,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 65,700,000$
Produced by: Jeffrey Mueller, Andy Licht, and Judd Apatow
Co-Starring: Matthew Broderick and George Segal
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Studio/Video: Columbia TriStar
Role: Chip Douglas/Cable Guy
Salary: 20,000,000$
Time Length: 95 minutes
Mins.Rated: PG-13

From Jerry Lewis to Eddie Murphy, the bottom-line rule of thumb in contemporary American film comedy has been that the more control a performer has over his movies, the less funny – less daring, more self-indulgent – they become. Not so Jim Carrey, whose fourth starring role, in ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS (Warner Bros., PG-13), is his best yet. Unlike so many superstar comics before him, Carrey has retained a raw hunger for The Joke – the killer punchline, the ultimate sight gag – that seems insatiable, and this gives his work a furious, omnivorous energy. Even when the jokes are as corny as this movie’s subtitle is, Carrey regularly squeezes a laugh out of you through sheer force of will.

When Nature Calls finds pet detective Ace Ventura in Africa, where he’s in search of a rare white bat. Unlike his character in Dumb and Dumber, Carrey’s Ace is all coolness and confidence – he swaggers around the jungle with that hip-swiveling, John Wayne-on-joy juice walk, sassing everybody in sight. (Trust me: Kids all over America will be hitting you with Ace’s new wise-guy catchphrase “Spank you – spank you very much.”) As always, the verbal comedy is nonsensical and vulgar, and the physical humor is rigorously conceived and really vulgar.

Ian McNeice plays the English diplomat who accompanies Ace on his bat quest, and Carrey’s In Living Color cohort Tommy Davidson is terrific (and unrecognizable) as a battling member of the Wachootoo tribe. But mucus might just as well receive costar billing too, for all the gleefully gross screen time Carrey gives it. There’s also a scene in which a mechanical rhinoceros “gives birth” to a naked Ace (sorry, the context is impossible to explain here) that would do Laurel and Hardy – and Luis Buñuel – proud.

Carrey and his writer pal Steve Oedekerk, making his debut as a director, are fearless in their spoofs of African-jungle-movie stereotypes. They get away with potentially offensive stuff simply: None of the black characters are stupid, or mere figures of fun. (Carrey works in a sweetly silly romantic scene with the film’s only prominent woman, a tribal princess played by Sophie Okonedo.) To be sure, When Nature Calls is very uneven and pretty much falls apart in the last half hour, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun before that. Plus, Carrey is one of the few comedians I know of who, at the end of the 20th century, are resourceful enough to coin a fresh slang term for masturbation (for the record, it’s “practicing my mantra”). (movie review by: Entertainment Weekly)

Year: 1995
Opening week-end: 37,800,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 107,000,000$
Produced by: James G. Robinson
Co-Starring: Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, Maynard Eziashi
Directed by: Steve Oedekerk
Studio/Video: Warner Bros./Warner Home Video
Role: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Salary: 12,000,000$
Time Length: 94 minutes
Mins.Rated: PG-13

This film flies at you with “blockbuster” written all over it, from the second the Warner Bros. logo mutates into that ubiquitious bat-shape (the mere sight of which, at the screening I attended, provoked a flurry of cheers, fists in the air, and, inexplicably, a cry of “Go, girl!”-before the credits had even started) and the roller coaster ride begins. It’s an apt metaphor, for Batman Forever careens from one high to the next, builds the suspense with occasional lows, progresses to an epic climax, and remembers to leave room for a sigh of relief at the end.

The highs? Jim Carrey’s Riddler, hands down. Though Tommy Lee Jones puts in a valiant effort as the scarred, schizophrenic Two Face, he simply can’t compete with Carrey’s completely unhinged daffiness-when he’s on the screen, you simply can’t look at anyone else. Even Val Kilmer, ostensibly the hero as Batman/Bruce Wayne, doesn’t provide much in the way of competition (though this is largely because, as usual, the villans get all the best lines).

The special effects-which effectively comprise another character in themselves-are suitably impressive, with enough clever escapes in place to keep things interesting. But one question: for a film with a multi-million dollar budget, wasn’t there anyone on staff with enough skill to correct the sound mix in the first scenes, in which the bulk of Jones’ dialogue is largely inaudible?

The lows? Well-the special effects. Instead of enhancing the movie, they’re the heart of the movie. So the plot has to concentrate on getting from one special effect to the next, because there’s not much in between to sustain your interest. In other words, the Batman series has been locked into a formula, and if Batman Forever makes enough money, they’ll probably never deviate from it again.

And Nicole Kidman. In the time-honored tradition of action flicks, Kidman’s Dr. Chase Meridian is dropped into the film for no other reason than to prove that our hero is a Real Man in every way. Teenage boys usually tag the scenes between the hero and his love interest the “boring bits” of a film, and in this case, they’re right. Meridian is pretty, but also pretty vapid for a therapist; even Drew Barrymore, who has a five-minute role as a gangster’s moll, has a spunkier character.

Meridian’s scenes are also utilized to give the audience some breathing space until it’s time for something to blow up again. The same goes for most of Chris O’Donnell’s scenes as Batman’s sidekick Robin/Dick Grayson. Robin is caught up in the fight against crime purely for reasons of revenge, a motive which underscores Batman’s own dedication to fighting crime. The potential to explore each of these characters in greater depth is there, but it’s not acted on. And as a result, it makes Robin’s introduction into the Batman series interesting, but hardly essential; the story would work just as well without him.

Somewhere in the middle you’ll find Kilmer, stepping into the Caped Crusader’s black rubber outfit for the first time (and proving that the “thong” look is just as unattractive on men as it is on women). Kilmer offers further hints about Wayne’s tortured past (involving a bout of repressed memory syndrome), but ultimately his character’s stoic demeanor keeps you at a distance.

Definitely a mixed bag, but the pluses have an edge. Batman Forever doesn’t have many surprises, but it’s fun while it lasts. (movie review by: Entertainment Weekly)

Year: 1995
Opening week-end: 56,200,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 184,300,000$
Produced by: Tim Burton
Starring: Val Kilmer and Jim Carrey
Co-Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman and Chris O’Ddonnell
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Studio/Video: Warner Bros./Warner Home Video
Role: Edward Nygma/The Riddler
Salary: 10,000,000$
Time Length: 122 minutes
Rated: PG-13

Rubbery handsome, with a chipped front tooth, fashion-disaster bangs, and the eager dimples of a depraved gopher, Jim Carrey turns his face and body into a special effect – a human morph machine – in DUMB and DUMBER (New Line, PG-13). He’s playing a geek called Lloyd Christmas who thinks he’s hot stuff, and though we’ve seen this character before (Steve Martin practically invented it), Carrey, zigzagging between twinkly-eyed infomercial-pitchman bravado and sheer manic idiocy, does the postmodern smart-dumb clod with a new kind of whiplash abandon.

Dumb and Dumber, which features Carrey and Jeff Daniels as nitwits who journey cross-country to return a suitcase full of cash, is a pokey, hit-or-miss buddy comedy, a frayed string of gags posing as a movie. Carrey and Daniels squirt themselves with mustard and ketchup, perform a spaz rendition of “Mockingbird,” and ride into Aspen on a tiny moped.

Essentially, Dumb and Dumber is The Jerk with two jerks instead of one. Carrey, though, sustains a comic persona here in a way he couldn’t quite in Ace Ventura or The Mask. He does literal-minded doofdom with peerless enthusiasm – he’s like Robin Williams without the preciousness.

In one of the film’s highlights, he fantasizes himself at home with the woman of his dreams (Lauren Holly). As the Cowsills’ ’60s love-schlock ditty “The Rain, the Park & Other Things” bounces away on the soundtrack, we see the two caught in an angelic embrace-at which point Carrey flips up the back of her minidress, flashes a schoolboy leer, and then instantly returns to his “tender” romantic gaze.

Almost any other comic would have turned that moment into a full-fledged daffy routine. With Carrey, it’s just a grace note, but the look on his face lingers-wickedly. Unlike Jerry Lewis, he’s too quick to let you catch him acting dumb.

If Carrey is ever cast in a movie as witty as he is, it could be some sort of classic. But Dumb and Dumber, the best of his pictures so far, is still a middling vehicle. There may be limits to how much comic irony can be wrung out of the spectacle of two grown men acting like complete cretins. The funniest moment isn’t really a joke at all but an outrageous gross-out. Daniels, playing a character even stupider than Carrey’s, inadvertently drinks a cup of laxative and then, in a panic, rushes into the bathroom and… well, goes (complete with graphic sound effects). Comedy doesn’t get much lower than this, but I defy anyone not to erupt into giggles watching Jeff Daniels’ face enact the five stages of bowel emergency. (movie review by: Entertainment Weekly)

Year: 1994
Opening week-end: 16,300,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 126,000,000$
Produced by: Charles B Wessler, Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler
Co-Starring: Jeff Daniels and Lauren Holly
Directed by: Peter Farelly
Studio/Video: New Line Cinema/New Line Home Video
Role: Lloyd Christmas
Salary: 7,000,000$
Time Length: 110 minutes
Rated: PG-13

Jim Carrey pulls off yet another hit playing Stanley Ipkiss and the Mask. The star of the runaway hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is back, and he’s as hyperactive as ever – only as the Mask though. As the new accounts guy at a bank managed by a spoilt brat, Ipkiss is a mild-mannered blundering dodo, until he dons the mask where he is transformed into someone who doesn’t hold back from doing what his innermost desires want.

Ipkiss dons the mask (supposedly containing the imprisoned (by Odin) spirit of Loki, the Norse god of mischief), robs the bank he works at, and goes on to woo gangster Dorian’s moll with the help of the mask’s powers. Dorian, who has ambitions of his own, resents her affection and decides to get rid of the Mask. Meanwhile, the Mask isn’t too popular with the cops either since he robbed the bank and destroyed the floor of his apartment lobby to get even with his nagging landlady. So he becomes a target of both the cops and the gangsters. To make things works, Dorian gets a hold of the mask and becomes even more evil and ruthless.

All’s well in the end when Ipkiss regains the mask (thanks to his dog Milo) and sets things right—and, of course, Dorian’s moll now is in love with Ipkiss since he was the only guy who didn’t treat her like a plaything, and she accepts him even though he gets rid of the mask in the end. Carrey’s antics suit both characters and if you don’t get tired of seeing his teeth, it makes for great viewing; catch it on the large screen if you can. (movie review by: Ram Samudrala)

Year: 1994
Opening week-end: 21,300,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 118,000,000$
Produced by: Bob Engelman
Co-Starring: Cameron Diaz and Richard Jeni
Directed by: Charles Russell
Studio/Video: New Line Cinema/New Line Home Video
Role: Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask
Salary: 3,000,000$
Time Length: 101 minutes
Rated: PG-13

I saw Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Not much to say about this one, except that it reflects the trend that stupid nonsensical behaviour can be considered “cool” and might even be productive (ala Beavis and Butt-head and Wayne’s World). If you go to movies like these and hate them, then you take life too seriously. These are meant to be laughed off at. The easier option, of course, is not see them at all, since it is a waste of time.

The movie’s about this dude, called Ace Ventura, who’s a pet detective (he finds pets that are missing). A dolphin has been stolen and he has to recover it. The plot itself isn’t that bad. There’s a homophobic attitude, but it reflects the sort of attitude seen in children I think. I mean when I was 8 or 9, the thought of being kissed by a boy was simply “yucky” (not that it is better now, but I accept that other people do these sorts of things). So do we tell kids it is “okay” to kiss people of the same sex or should we go on the way we do now? Most children I think are steered by society to think that people of the opposite sexes match and it is only when they are old enough to decide for themselves that people come to terms with their sexual preferences. Should we tell children, then, when they are around 10 that they should also “date” other interested people of the same sex?

I’ve waited for the movie to come out on videocassette, but it’s definitely funny if you’re into those above mentioned movies. The movie parodies a couple of things, Star Trek being one of them, which is quite well done. (movie review by: Ram Samudrala)

Year: 1994
Opening week-end: 12,100,000$
Total Box-Office Gross: 81,000,000$
Produced by: James G. Robinson
Co-Starring: Courtney Cox and Dan Marino
Directed by: Tom Shadyac
Studio/Video: Warner Bros./Warner Home Video
Role: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Salary: 350,000$
Time Length: 87 minutes
Rated: PG-13

Also known as the ‘James’ period. Some of the funniest stuff Carrey ever did on was on ‘In Living Color.’ He also apparently got in trouble for some of them. People Magazine says that a national coalition of fire prevention groups called for his sketches of Fire Marshall Bill to be pulled off the air because of the negative effect it was having on children. Since ILC was an comedy/variety show it is difficult to categorize what Carrey did on it in a few sentences.

The show was an excellent forum for his physical comedy and a great place to sharpen his comedy writing ability. One of my favorite skits involved a parody about Star Trek in which Carrey did his dead-on William Shatner impression. (I think it would be shorter to list the people that Carrey doesn’t do well, then spend pixels trying to list those he does.)

If you have the cable channel f/x (Fox’s cable outlet) then you can catch reruns of this show every night (and judge the ‘James’ period for yourself.) Carrey gained a real cult following doing this show and in a recent MTV interview claimed that ILC got him a fan base and he started receiving movie offers. “That was the first time that people, on a mass scale, started saying ‘You are our god.’” (MTV) If you have F/X channel, this is definitely worth watching. (*Though some of the topical humor is aging.) Fire Marshall Bill and Vera de Milo and such are Divine Comedy and are beyond any mere mortal attempt at a rating system. Heck, I know some fans who actually worship these characters, so objectivity is just impossible. (movie review by: alt.fan.jimcarrey)

Year: 1990-1993
Co-Starring: Damon and Keenen Ivory Wayans
Directed by: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Role: Vera De Milo/Fire Marshall Bill
Salary: ?????$
Rated: PG