Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

7/10

 Starring

Jim Carrey

Sean Young

Courteney Cox

 

Directed by Tom Shadyac

 

For kids growing up in the '90s, comedies were a blast, and Jim Carrey owned the era with movies like The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and later, Liar Liar. We were young, and we loved every minute of it.
The premise of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is what makes it so hilarious. It’s so far-fetched that you might wonder how anyone could take it seriously, but somehow, it works as a genuinely funny movie.

Yes, the character Ace Ventura is a pet detective. He’s eccentric, over-the-top, and specializes in solving cases involving animals.
The main plot revolves around the Miami Dolphins’ mascot, a bottlenose dolphin named Snowflake, who’s stolen just weeks before the Super Bowl.
Ventura is hired to solve the case before the big game.

The movie plays out like a classic private detective story—hated by the police, with only one officer, Detective Lois Einhorn, seemingly on his side.
His investigations are wild and chaotic, which makes up for the lack of method in his routine. He checks a shark tank, interrogates players, and suspects practically everyone. Eventually, he stumbles upon a key suspect he couldn’t find earlier, piecing together clues to reveal that someone isn’t who they claim to be.

The movie is like a monkey on steroids, jumping from one absurd scenario to another, throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
In the end, we’re left with a hilarious resolution to the case.

The film was a box-office success, earning over $100 million from a $15 million production budget.
This success led Jim Carrey to sign on for a sequel, despite claiming he doesn’t like doing sequels. But judging by Dumb and Dumber To and his involvement in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, it seems that stance has changed.

This is a fun movie to watch anytime, but be warned: you’re in for an eccentric Jim Carrey performance.
Back in the day, there was even an animated Ace Ventura series where he solved more cases and did even more over-the-top antics. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth checking out!

The movie production must have been a blast, and it’s impossible to watch this film without realizing that Jim Carrey likely improvised a lot of his lines. He was even allowed to help rewrite some scenes and dialogue.
What’s also fun to know is that when casting wasn’t going as planned, the filmmakers considered rewriting the script to turn Ventura into a woman and cast Whoopi Goldberg in the role. Imagine how different that would’ve been!