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Sometimes it's hard to tell if
The Mask (or Jim Carrey's in-your-face mugging in general) is actually funny, or just bizarre and grotesque. And sometimes it just doesn't matter. Carrey plays a shy, Jerry Lewis-like nerd who discovers an ancient mask that magically transforms him into a green-faced, zoot-suited Tex Avery cartoon character with no inhibitions. As Roger Ebert said of Carrey in
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, the actor performs "as if he's being clocked on an Energy-O-Meter, and paid by the calorie expended." If that's your kind of humor, you'll love
The Mask; if not, you may need a valium or two to sit through this one.
--Jim Emerson
Additional features
This edition of
The Mask is the version that played on network television. About six minutes have been edited and some language has been alterted.
