Ep. 8 - The Jim Carrey Trifecta!

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] JJ: We are going to be showing people behind the curtain of our audio podcast and that's why I'm glad I've got a couple of things that I have behind me here. I've got my Back to the Future book, which you can't see on my phone, but I've got, if you're noticing here, I've got my little guy. That's me. It's not me, but it's me. Let's just call it me. Well, my background is a drawing that my friend did of Batman.

[0:32] Olaf: Yeah, I like that.

[0:32] JJ: That I cherish. Then I have a framed copy of the logo for my own comic strip that I like to draw.

[0:42] Olaf: Chris Goodneville. You still have that up, right?

[0:45] JJ: Yeah, I still have the Instagram. I haven't done much with it in some time. But it's a very cool comic strip.

[0:52] Olaf: Thanks. I just got a plug. What do you know?

[0:55] JJ: That's right.

[0:55] Olaf: I make up for the appearance with other talents.

[0:59] JJ: Yeah, his art doesn't look anything like him. The art, the characters of good...

[1:04] Olaf: I look like Vigo from Ghostbusters 2.

[1:08] JJ: Well, a lot of people used to tell me I favored a young Patrick Dempsey. You know, I'll take it.

[1:13] Olaf: You're definitely winning on the looks category.

[1:17] JJ: That's why I appreciate that.

[1:18] Olaf: For all of you that are just listening and not tuning into the video, I look amazing.

[1:27] JJ: Yes, you do. And speaking of amazing, I've been really excited about this moment right here.

[1:33] Olaf: Yeah, what is this? Our third attempt?

[1:36] JJ: This is our third attempt at just trying to get this conversation going. So I think third time is the charm.

[1:41] Olaf: Scheduling for us is not easy.

[1:44] JJ: It's not our strong suit.

[1:45] Olaf: It is. It is a lot of hurdles. So bear with us, but we make it happen somehow.

[1:51] JJ: And speaking of three, that's what we're talking about tonight.

[1:56] Olaf: We are going to be diving into what I consider to be the trifecta.

[2:02] JJ: I think once people realize that these all came out in the same year, then they go, oh, yeah, this is unbelievable that all three of these movies came out in the same year and pretty much launched this particular actor's career.

[2:14] Olaf: And of course, if you've read the title or if you've read the little byline, then you know exactly who we're talking about and what movies are going to be talking about.

[2:21] JJ: And so without any further delay, let's jump into it. Let's go back to the movie theater.

[2:25] Olaf: We're back, baby.

[2:41] JJ: My name is JJ with me, as always, is my wonderful longtime friend and co-host Olaf. How you doing, man?

[2:48] Olaf: I'm doing good. Happy to be here. Ready to go. Trying to enjoy what little I see I have since I live on the sun.

[2:56] JJ: Well, since we are doing a little video, I cannot even tell that you are breaking a sweat. So you look fantastic.

[3:02] Olaf: Yeah, well, everything's on fire outside.

[3:05] JJ: So well, tonight we are going to be discussing the three movies that pretty much launched and put Jim Carrey on the map. And we're talking about the year that was 1994. And those three movies are Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber.

[3:26] Olaf: That is mind blowing. I mean, we've talked about this before, and every time I hear it, it's still blowing my mind. And every time I hear it, it still blows my mind that those three blockbuster movies all came out in the same year. It's that just doesn't happen very often. A lot of times, maybe an actor will have two movies come out in the same year, but three and not only just three movies, but three massive, massive blockbusters.

[3:59] JJ: Well, and I mean, I remember when these came out. They came out in 1994. I was about 15, 16. And I feel like I might be an outlier here, but I was not an In Living Color fan. I saw it every once in a while, but I wasn't a frequent watcher of the show.

[4:14] Olaf: So I think if you weren't watching In Living Color, then when Ace Ventura came out, you had no idea who Jim Carrey was.

[4:22] JJ: Now, I knew who he was, but I didn't really have an idea.

[4:25] Olaf: I loved In Living Color. I don't know why I never really watched a lot of Saturday Night Live when I was younger. It might have been because of how late it was on.

[4:33] JJ: Yeah, because In Living Color, that was like eight o'clock on Fox.

[4:40] Olaf: Yeah, I mean, that was perfect viewing time for the family sit down and watch. And Jim Carrey was incredible.

[4:47] JJ: And see, for me, I'm the exact opposite. I watched a lot of Saturday Night Live in the 80s and I didn't get to In Living Color. It just was never on my radar. And that was on Fox when Fox was just starting to become a network. I feel like it was The Simpsons. It was In Living Color. And there was a couple of other things that were on. But the great thing about In Living Color was that he was the token white guy in the all-black cast of In Living Color.

[5:12] Olaf: Well, he was the white guy. There was a white woman there as well.

[5:18] JJ: The Waynes brothers just did an incredible thing. They brought comedy and mayhem. And it was so fun to watch that, to sit down. The whole family could enjoy it. And so many great characters came out of it. Homie Don't Play That, the movie critics.

[5:36] Olaf: The critics.

[5:37] JJ: Yeah, that's the thing. I didn't watch it, but I was aware of it. Even his characters, Fire Marshal Bill.

[5:44] Olaf: Fire Marshal Bill is still my favorite of Jim Carey's characters on that show.

[5:50] JJ: And a lot of times he'd play these straight characters to the Waynes brothers' characters. And that was hilarious, too.

[5:58] Olaf: Right. And then he had his Captain Kirk as well.

[6:00] JJ: Captain Kirk. So for me, I remember seeing him in other movies like Earth Girls Are Easy with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. And this was before In Living Color. And then, was it? Was it Once Bitten?

[6:15] Olaf: Yeah, Once Bitten.

[6:16] JJ: So when they shot Ace Ventura, it was towards the end of the In Living Color run. Like that show was coming to an end. So it's so wild how he was able to dovetail that season of being on television into a possible movie career. Because Ace Ventura, one, came out in February. It came out at the beginning of the year, where they usually sort of dump movies. They don't know how they're going to do. So they dump them in January, February.

[6:43] Olaf: And he wasn't the original choice for this movie.

[6:46] JJ: There were so many other people that were offered Ace Ventura before they finally settled on him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Ace Ventura character and story was really kind of going in a different direction. It was much darker. It was going to be a much darker movie where he still has to investigate a crime. But I think there was a little more violence involved. And it definitely wasn't catered to his style initially.

[7:14] Olaf: And so obviously, when he came on, they rewrite the script and they make some major adjustments for his character. But yeah, it's just it's wild to me that he shoots this movie that, again, I think Rick Moranis. Rick Moranis was one of those that he was offered the role and he turned it down.

[7:32] JJ: I didn't know that.

[7:32] Olaf: Because he hadn't quite retired yet. Rick Moranis hadn't retired yet. And he was offered the role. He turned it down. And then they went through this weird, wild list of actors.

[7:43] JJ: Right. Judd Nelson was offered Ace Ventura. Alan Rickman was considered for the role of Ace Ventura, which would have been a totally different vibe.

[7:50] Olaf: Oh, my gosh. Could you imagine Hans Gruber as Ace Ventura?

[7:56] JJ: It would have been a totally.

[7:57] Olaf: Yeah. But see, it's interesting because you get somebody the spectrum of actors they were trying to get for this movie goes from Alan Rickman all the way to Rob Schneider. And Rob Schneider turned it down. I believe Adam Sandler turned it down because they were both on SNL at the time and they were kind of on their way out of SNL. But the idea for this movie for Ace was and I just rewatched it and I can totally understand where they were going. It had a very Fletch vibe, you know, this detective solving a crime using his sort of wits and humor. So I was I could understand where they were going with it.

[8:32] JJ: And then it finally got into Jim Carrey's hands and Tom Shadiac, who had never directed a film either. It was his first film to direct, which for his first film, solid. I mean, oh, I agree. You would hope that your first film would be that good.

[8:41] Olaf: Yeah, no, I agree. And we're going to kind of I've got varying opinions and perspectives on these movies because I just rewatched them.

[8:55] JJ: Yeah.

[8:55] Olaf: And so prior to it, I was like, yeah, man, these movies have always been great. They're so funny. And the humor is like hits and he's great. And so I rewatched Ace. Doesn't age well.

[9:07] JJ: It does. It doesn't age well. It's a movie that could only have been made when it was made.

[9:12] Olaf: Yes.

[9:12] JJ: Like, I don't even know if you would want to reboot. I don't even know why you would.

[9:16] Olaf: Well, they do it.

[9:17] JJ: Well, they made a sequel right away, like the sequel came out the following year, so they didn't waste any time with this.

[9:23] Olaf: Hold on. It came out that soon.

[9:25] JJ: Yeah, it came out the next year.

[9:28] Olaf: Whoa.

[9:29] JJ: Yeah.

[9:29] Olaf: I did not remember that.

[9:30] JJ: I could have sworn part two was like two years later.

[9:34] Olaf: No, because at that point he was already asking for money like he did this. They offered him not a lot of money for this movie. I was like, he was a nobody.

[9:43] JJ: Well, yeah, it was like they offered him like three hundred thousand dollars, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this movie. I mean, he was clearly one of the more popular performers on In Living Color, and I believe he'd made some appearances doing his stand up on some late night talk shows. But as far as movies went, he didn't have anything to lean on.

[10:03] Olaf: He had One Spittin' and Earth Girls are Easy.

[10:06] JJ: That's not right.

[10:07] Olaf: It's not really two movies to be all that proud of.

[10:10] JJ: No, no, I agree. And so he, you know, got about three hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the movie. Chump change. And it came out in like February of that year. And so it ended up doing well. It was like it made all this money. It blew up, it blew up, it blew him up. And then what, five months later, as we roll into the summer and they were already promoting this next movie, The Mask.

[10:39] Olaf: Yeah, that came out in the summer.

[10:41] JJ: It came out in like July of 1994. And that movie probably wouldn't have been as big if it hadn't been for Ace Ventura, because you're going into a movie about a comic book that not a lot of people know about.

[10:58] Olaf: Right.

[10:58] JJ: And if you hadn't had Ace Ventura, you've got this guy that isn't that well known other than than in living color.

[11:04] Olaf: Yeah. So I wonder how that would have gone without.

[11:07] JJ: Well, and that movie had a lot of different people that they wanted to have be in it before it ended up in his lap.

[11:36] J.J.: The Mask also had a much darker tone to it before he was attached to it.

[11:42] Olaf: Well, because the comic is a darker tone, so I imagine that's where they were trying to go originally.

[11:48] J.J.: So, by my math, based on what you've told me, with these two movies in one year, he's somewhere around $850,000?

[11:59] Olaf: He got paid $350,000 for Ace Ventura. He got paid $540,000.

[12:03] J.J.: Oh, $540,000.

[12:05] Olaf: For The Mask.

[12:06] J.J.: Okay, so more like $900,000 plus.

[12:09] Olaf: Yeah, it's just wild to me.

[12:11] J.J.: And that's just two movies.

[12:12] Olaf: Yeah, that's just two movies. That's just two.

[12:16] J.J.: And again, the casting that they wanted for this movie didn't start with him either.

[12:21] Olaf: There were other people that were either linked to it, attached to it, or had been asked or considered and just turned it down or didn't want to do it.

[12:31] J.J.: And so, by the time it got into Jim Carrey's hands, they were able to... Again, he's not a nobody. People knew him from his stand-up from In Living Color, so they knew things that he was capable of and the humor that he could bring to even The Mask character.

[12:44] Olaf: And I love The Mask. Even re-watching it, I think it's... Of the three, that one still, for me, is like...

[12:50] J.J.: Yeah, I mean, sure, it feels a little dated, but it's already in that... It already has that very noir quality about it because of the dark comic. How that movie is shot and the kind of world that they created for it, it's kind of timeless. It doesn't have to really worry about aging badly.

[13:09] Olaf: Plus, I think the humor was better because it was more cartoon-based, like the Looney Tunes.

[13:17] J.J.: Because Ace Ventura, even though I know guys older than me that still quote that movie...

[13:24] Olaf: Oh, they quote Ace?

[13:25] J.J.: You go back and watch Ace Ventura, as you did, and it's not that easy of a watch.

[13:31] Olaf: And a lot of the humor is very lowbrow.

[13:35] J.J.: Yeah.

[13:36] Olaf: Because I remember loving that movie, but even then, I still didn't care for him talking out of his butt.

[13:43] J.J.: Which apparently, that particular bit was something he did on In Living Color, like in the writer's room when...

[13:49] Olaf: I think what annoyed me about that bit was that it just went too long. And then they brought it back in the second one, which the second one I think is better.

[13:59] J.J.: I think it's funnier, but...

[14:01] Olaf: I can't watch the second one.

[14:03] J.J.: Why?

[14:03] Olaf: I've seen it. I don't like it.

[14:06] J.J.: Really?

[14:06] Olaf: It's him trying too hard. It's like he took the Ace Ventura character, which was already very over the top, and then he just went to another level. And for me, it was too much for me. I could not enjoy the second movie at all.

[14:21] J.J.: And it was one of those things where I'm like, I can't do this. I cannot. That's just me, though.

[14:29] Olaf: But going back to The Mask, Steve Martin was offered the role, but he was too expensive.

[14:34] J.J.: Rightly so. I mean, he was a powerhouse by then.

[14:37] Olaf: They had offered it to Rick Moranis also, but he was attached to Little Giants, so he did Little Giants instead. And he had turned down Ace Ventura to do Flintstones, which I couldn't...

[14:48] J.J.: Ooh.

[14:50] Olaf: So eventually, they had seen some stuff of Jim on In Living Color, and they offered it to him. So can you imagine being in the middle of Ace Ventura, shooting Ace Ventura, maybe you're just about to wrap, and then you get this one, and they're going to cater this one to you with Cameron Diaz's first movie.

[15:05] J.J.: It was Cameron Diaz's very first movie, The Mask.

[15:07] Olaf: Yes.

[15:08] J.J.: Originally, they had offered it to Anna Nicole Smith, if I'm not mistaken.

[15:13] Olaf: I think it was Anna Nicole Smith. I want to get that right. But I feel like they wanted Anna Nicole Smith, and then they saw Cameron Diaz coming out of a modeling agency or something, and Cameron Diaz had to read for the role 12 times.

[15:27] J.J.: She read for the role 12 times before she got the part. I mean, I think she was fine in it. Her first movie? She was not an actress. She was 21.

[15:35] Olaf: Yeah.

[15:35] J.J.: 21.

[15:36] Olaf: I really enjoy The Mask. It's a lot of fun.

[15:38] J.J.: I love The Mask.

[15:40] Olaf: So when they were going to do Dumb and Dumber, they were going to offer Jim Carrey $700,000 to do Dumb and Dumber, and then Ace Ventura was released, and it blew up like opening weekend.

[15:52] J.J.: So they went back to the contract table, and he got $7 million for Dumb and Dumber.

[15:59] Olaf: Wow.

[15:59] J.J.: Yes.

[16:00] Olaf: He got $7 million to do Dumb and Dumber, and they didn't want Jeff Daniels.

[16:04] J.J.: No, they didn't. Jeff Daniels' agent was like, do not do this.

[16:09] Olaf: He had three agents. They're like, we can get you out of this contract. He's like, no, I'm going to do this. He's like, Jim Carrey is going to wipe the floor with you. You're going to be upstaged. They had another actor on standby, and for the first week of shooting, Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey shot stuff individually. They shot stuff separately.

[16:24] J.J.: Right.

[16:25] Olaf: And so every day they would look at the dailies to see, is Jeff Daniels our guy? And they finally went, yeah. He got paid $50,000 for that movie.

[16:34] J.J.: That's insane.

[16:35] Olaf: It is insane because he'd already had a career for almost two decades.

[16:39] J.J.: Very well done.

[16:40] Olaf: Yeah. But after they paid $7 million to Jim Carrey, that's probably all they had left.

[16:46] J.J.: Yeah, because this is the Farrelly brothers' first movie, too. They hadn't directed a movie either.

[16:50] Olaf: Yeah, that's incredible.

[16:52] J.J.: So with three movies, Jim Carrey makes nearly $8 million in one year.

[16:58] Olaf: In one year.

[16:59] J.J.: He made $8 million, and of the three, Dumb and Dumber on a rewatch was harder for me than Ace Ventura.

[17:07] Olaf: What? Really?

[17:08] J.J.: Yeah. For me, again, they're all fantastic movies in their own right. They're all movies that could only really have been made when they were made. But I rewatched Dumb and Dumber, and I was like, this is very, for what it is, it's like you were saying with Ace Ventura. It's very sort of...

[17:24] Olaf: Lowbrow.

[17:25] J.J.: Lowbrow.

[17:27] Olaf: You already know that going in. And there are certain things that both of these guys are doing, which are genius. I'm not going to take anything away from what both of these guys are doing. But does it still hold up?

[17:40] J.J.: And there was a huge part of me that just felt like, I don't think this is holding up for me.

[17:46] Olaf: Wow.

[17:47] J.J.: That's kind of surprising. Because even now, I would probably still, of the three, I'd say Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, Ace Ventura.

[17:56] Olaf: If I had to pick the order in which I would watch them, it would be... And I'm going to be eyebrows raised.

[18:03] J.J.: I'm going to be way over here on my own island.

[18:06] Olaf: That's what you love to do.

[18:08] J.J.: I know. But if I had to pick the order in which I watch these movies, my three would be on a rewatch.

[18:15] Olaf: Okay.

[18:15] J.J.: The Mask, Ace Ventura, and Dumb and Dumber.

[18:18] Olaf: Wow.

[18:19] J.J.: Now, this is me watching. I rewatched all these by myself. If I were with people, it might be different. But just from a sheer enjoyment from beginning to end, the things he's doing in The Mask, it's like he took the Ace Ventura role, which was just some stuff he was doing with In Living Color. Like he did Kirk. He did the talking out of his butt. He did those types of things. But when he did The Mask, he was then... This is going to be high praise because I'm a huge Robin Williams fan. But the things he was able to do and given creative license to do with The Mask reminded me on a much smaller scale of what Robin Williams was doing in Aladdin.

[18:55] Olaf: And they were animating the genie in Aladdin.

[18:57] J.J.: Yeah.

[18:58] Olaf: But because Jim Carrey was given that freedom with that type of character, he was able to pull from his own mind and just really riff and go. And they were able to follow him. And he improvised a lot of those things that are still in the film. And so I enjoy that because it's... Sure. It's zany. I don't want to take away from The Mask and his performance.

[19:17] J.J.: Yeah.

[19:17] Olaf: It's not dumb for the sake of being dumb. And I know dumb and dumber, that's what it is.

[19:22] J.J.: Well, with The Mask, it's not about... I wouldn't call the humor lowbrow or college or anything like that. It's very much, I'm going to be a real cartoon.

[19:29] Olaf: He took the Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes characters and basically brought it to life.

[19:40] J.J.: Yeah. No, he did. Like he was channeling that. And I thought it was incredible. Again, there is a progression of what he's doing, which is one of the things that I enjoy about all three of these movies is that he's given an opportunity to sort of evolve. Like each character is different, but has similar things that by the time he gets to Dumb and Dumber, you care about him, but you also realize where he's at from an intelligence standpoint.

[20:22] Olaf: He's got a huge heart. I will say this, all three of these characters with Ace, even though he's eccentric, he's good at his job.

[20:31] J.J.: He's great at his job.

[20:32] Olaf: He's great at what he does and he cares and he loves what he does. And he loves animals.

[20:37] J.J.: Right. I mean, there's a passion there.

[20:39] Olaf: The Mask, the character of the Mask doesn't count, but Stanley Ipkiss does.

[20:45] J.J.: Stanley Ipkiss does. And he's just a hopeless romantic, every man that's just trying to get out from under the situation of life.

[20:56] Olaf: Yeah.

[20:56] J.J.: So he's constantly getting beaten down, but he's still very optimistic, glass half full type of guy with Dumb and Dumber. He's got a big heart. He means well. He's just not the brightest bulb.

[21:09] Olaf: And Jeff Daniels, I don't know if they're equal or if they're coming at it from different. It's weird because in that movie, I feel like there are times where one of them becomes smarter than the other, but they seesaw back and forth.

[21:22] J.J.: Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

[21:24] Olaf: Almost like they take turns being the straight man to the other one's buffoonery.

[21:29] J.J.: Yeah, I would agree with that completely. They do definitely take turns and they have their moments when they're by themselves doing stuff and probably because that's how they shot it, because they were like, we're not sure if Jeff Daniels is our guy. So let's shoot all of his stuff by him because he does. There are a lot of scenes that it's just him and it's just him doing whatever situation he happens to be in.

[21:52] Olaf: But yeah, I would agree that they definitely take turns being the straight man or being the one that's maybe, for lack of a better term, a little bit dumber than the other.

[22:02] J.J.: And so maybe they do take turns being dumb and dumber, as the title would suggest. But going back to just the topic itself, the fact that he had three movies and they were spaced out, they came out February, I believe July, and then Dumb and Dumber came out in the winter, like November, December.

[22:20] Olaf: Yeah.

[22:20] J.J.: So at that point, of course, you're going to go see Dumb and Dumber.

[22:25] Olaf: Oh, yeah.

[22:25] J.J.: And everybody did.

[22:27] Olaf: I did.

[22:28] J.J.: Yeah, I loved it. It was hilarious. I mean, I started doing this as a little kid, but I've always been big on trying to do impressions.

[22:37] Olaf: Oh, right.

[22:39] J.J.: I've always mimicked so many things. And Jim Carrey was huge. I mean, everybody was doing it as well. But I could have recited the lines from a lot of his movies, The Grinch, Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura. I mean, it was I was ridiculous. I just was constantly just embodying Jim Carrey. And a lot of my humor, a lot of my physical comedy that I was developing as a kid going into high school and finding theater.

[23:13] J.J.: A lot of that physicality came from people like Jim Carrey and idolizing him. He was a huge influence on me at that time in my life, as far as really being as physical as possible and trying to be as funny as possible.

[23:27] Olaf: Yeah, no, absolutely. And what I find interesting, too, is that with at least the first two movies, he was trying to say things within the film that would hopefully become catchphrases.

[23:39] J.J.: Oh, yeah. Well, like in the table read of Ace, he would read these lines because originally the tone of the film was very straight, like he was kind of doing it in this sort of Fletch Chevy Chase sort of way. But some of the lines weren't hitting. So he would add "all righty then" to the end of the line to see if it would work. And it did. And that one is the one that really took off out of that movie.

[24:06] Olaf: Yeah, I feel like everybody was like, "Oh, righty then." I don't know if it was as popular then as it is now, but I never get tired of "your gun is digging into my hip."

[24:18] J.J.: Your gun is digging into my hip. I love how he repeats it later. And he's in his car after he's made the realization and he realizes. It was like the whole crying game.

[24:24] Olaf: Yeah. And you've got Einhorn as Finkle and Finkle as Einhorn.

[24:33] J.J.: Yeah. Finkle and Einhorn. Yeah. Or little footballs, you know, when he goes to see the Finkle's parents and she, you know, laces out.

[24:43] Olaf: Yeah. People still say that. And that's not him. That was the mom played by the actress who was the librarian in Ghostbusters.

[24:48] J.J.: Yes, that's right. Alice plays Finkle's mom in Ace Ventura. My uncle thought he was St. Jerome.

[24:54] Olaf: Well, I'd say that's a yes.

[24:59] J.J.: A different movie.

[25:10] Olaf: Yeah. And then when he goes to the insane asylum and he does that whole bit where he does a football play and then he rewinds it.

[25:16] J.J.: Yeah. Let's see that in an instant replay.

[25:22] Olaf: Yeah. I loved that was probably that movie and that scene were probably one of those. I want to see if I can try and walk in slow motion and see if it's funny, you know, because he makes it look effortless because he's a genius.

[25:35] J.J.: Yeah. I think the physical comedy of what he was doing is what I latched on to the most at that age after seeing that movie, because I've always been a huge fan of physical comedy and he's not the first to do it, obviously.

[25:44] Olaf: No, there are. I mean, he was the first to do it in such a radical way.

[25:50] J.J.: Well, and for us, for our generation, like you could go back to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton and some of the greats.

[25:55] Olaf: Oh, absolutely. That were way before our time and even our parents' time. But I would argue that even they didn't have quite the explosiveness or the bendability that...

[26:00] J.J.: That's tough because just on a visual standpoint, the things Charlie Chaplin was doing just from the sets, like if you were to look at sure how he was shooting his movies and the things he had to do, there's more precision, I think, in what Charlie Chaplin was doing.

[26:18] Olaf: Yeah, I thought he was more precise and more graceful.

[26:21] J.J.: Yes. This was like the MTV of physical comedy was Jim Carrey. It's awesome. It's just the stuff that he was doing in The Insane Asylum and in The Mask. They didn't have to use as much CG or they could go a little bit more practical when he signed on to the movie because of everything he was bringing to the film physically, which I thought was just amazing.

[26:47] Olaf: Yeah. And, you know, kudos to a young Courtney Cox.

[26:53] J.J.: Yes. Well, here's the thing about that. There's a couple of things. You're absolutely right. Kudos to her. Lauren Holly was offered that first. She turned it down and then ended up doing Dumb and Dumber later.

[27:02] Olaf: Yeah, I think she was like, "Wait a minute. Who? Oh, I should probably correct my mistake."

[27:12] J.J.: Which honestly, I prefer it that way. I'm not saying that Courtney Cox would have been better in Dumb and Dumber and Lauren Holly would have been better in Ace Ventura, but I really like who got what part and the roles are somewhat interchangeable in terms of what they're being asked to do.

[27:22] Olaf: But I think in the world that Ace Ventura is living in, Courtney Cox, I think she did a great job. She's as whatever type of job she had with the Miami Dolphins. I'm not sure what she was doing.

[27:33] J.J.: She did Ace Ventura. She hadn't started Friends yet.

[27:39] Olaf: No. So the movie came out in February of ninety-four. So they shot it in ninety-three. Friends premiered in ninety-four. So that means they shot the pilot right after Ace Ventura came out. So she was still kind of unknown other than the music video for Bruce Springsteen.

[27:59] J.J.: See, that's... you would think because of the Friends cast, she was the one that had the most on her resume. Not only Bruce Springsteen, but she was in Cocoon 2. She was in Masters of the Universe.

[28:10] Olaf: She has Cocoon 2 because everyone raced to the theater to see Cocoon 2.

[28:18] J.J.: She was in it and she got it because she was in Masters of the Universe before that. And people went and saw that.

[28:23] Olaf: Yeah, they sure did. And she was also Michael J. Fox's love interest for the last season and a half or two seasons of Family Ties.

[28:30] J.J.: I almost forgot that she was in that.

[28:36] Olaf: Yeah. My point is she had some things. It wasn't like she had been living off of the Bruce Springsteen video ten years earlier and hadn't done anything.

[28:42] J.J.: Oh, yeah, I could see that the Friends cast going. So I was Masters of the Universe.

[28:47] Olaf: Well, look at you.

[28:54] J.J.: Yeah. Well, I mean, no. But they said, "Well, you're in Ace Ventura" because it had just come out. And again, it's one of those things where, like, the fortune smiles sort of thing on what you're doing, because I'm sure like most people that did Ace Ventura, you don't know what it's going to be. You don't... I mean, you're just like, "This is a paycheck. I got bills to pay."

[29:09] Olaf: Yeah, we'll see. And all of a sudden, no one knew Ace Ventura was going to be huge. I'm sure when they were filming it, I'm sure a lot of the crew was like, "I don't know what we are filming. This guy is just acting like a clown."

[29:17] J.J.: Well, when you think of the people that were that they wanted for these roles and then they ended up getting the people that they got, like they really shot for the stars for A-list talent.

[29:29] Olaf: Oh, yeah. And then settled for people that weren't quite A-list either anymore or hadn't gotten to that status yet. Sean Young hadn't done much in a while.

[29:46] J.J.: No, that's true. And then this is probably Dan Marino's biggest role he has ever had. Right. He had already been doing isotoner gloves because they make a joke about that in the movie, clearly.

[29:52] Olaf: But yeah, no, I mean, aside from Dan Marino and Sean Young and Sean Young's shine had worn off.

[30:02] J.J.: Yeah. She had the 80s and that was like it.

[30:07] Olaf: Yeah. Well, she really... she also was difficult to work with here.

[30:13] J.J.: Yeah. And I think she kind of hurt her career with the stunt she pulled trying to get on to Batman Returns.

[30:20] Olaf: Right. As Selina Kyle, that story spread like wildfire. And I think after that, everyone was just like, "No, we're good."

[30:26] J.J.: Right. They just didn't want to work with her.

[30:30] Olaf: Yeah. Well, for those of you who don't know, and we'll probably talk about this at another time again, but she was supposed to be in Batman instead of Kim Basinger.

[30:38] J.J.: That's it. She was signed on. She was ready to go. I don't think she'd started filming yet. And she got hurt. She was riding a horse and she broke her arm or something. And so she couldn't do it. They pulled Kim Basinger at the last minute. She got on a plane, landed, shot a scene. It was like that quick.

[30:58] Olaf: Right. But Sean Young was very much like, "Well, I've got to be in Batman Returns." And when it's announced we're casting for Catwoman, she was a little too enthusiastic and she dressed up in a cat costume and snuck in or just rushed past the security at the lot and basically broke into Tim Burton's office, who wasn't there at the time that it happened, but the producers were there.

[31:28] J.J.: And she just started crawling around and being cat-like.

[31:34] Olaf: That's what it was.

[31:41] J.J.: Yeah. And yeah, it didn't do her any favors.

[31:46] Olaf: Yeah. But, and this is an interesting thing because she was great in the movie, like for what she was supposed to be doing in the movie. She's great. However, it didn't, the success of the movie didn't help her.

[31:55] J.J.: No. It's not like all of a sudden she was... this was like a renaissance for Sean Young.

[32:01] Olaf: Well, but the success of the movie didn't honestly help anyone other than Jim Carrey.

[32:06] J.J.: Well, you have to wonder if Courtney Cox was...

[32:12] Olaf: Courtney Cox was probably going to do Leprechaun 2 or something, you know, because...

[32:16] J.J.: That's Jennifer Aniston. Jennifer Aniston was in the first one. So Courtney's like, "Well, I'll do the second one."

[32:22] Olaf: But Courtney had Friends to launch her.

[32:30] J.J.: But who's to say that Ace Ventura didn't help her get Friends?

[32:41] Olaf: I don't think the studio, I don't think NBC really knew. They were probably shooting around the same time. They probably were shooting the pilot around the same time.

[32:49] J.J.: So you look at everyone that's in that movie and the only person who really benefited from it was Jim Carrey.

[32:56] Olaf: Well, I mean, and rightly so, because you're going to see it for him. You're not going, "Man, and then Courtney Cox did this great thing too."

[33:02] J.J.: No, because...

[33:08] Olaf: But you also have to remember, you're not really going to see it for Jim Carrey because he was just like a TV actor and a stand-up comedian. So you're going to see this movie because it seems weird and interesting, maybe funny. It's when you leave the theater, then you're going back and seeing it again for Jim Carrey.

[33:20] J.J.: And then you're seeing The Mask because of Jim Carrey. Then you're seeing Dumb and Dumber because of Jim Carrey. So it's crazy what Ace Ventura was able to do. It just launched him.

[33:30] Olaf: I'm not saying it hurt anybody else to be in Ace Ventura, but I don't really think it helped anybody.

[33:35] J.J.: So, and we kind of glossed over this a little bit as to if you had to place them in any order, you mentioned your order.

[33:41] Olaf: Yeah. My order, number one was Dumb and Dumber. Number two was The Mask.

[33:47] J.J.: Oh, you put Ace at three.

[33:50] Olaf: Yeah. Okay. What about Dumb and Dumber places it at the top for you?

[33:53] J.J.: I don't know. I think if Dumb and Dumber had just been Jim Carrey, I think I would probably put it at the bottom instead of Ace Ventura, but Dumb and Dumber as a whole with Jeff Daniels and the plot and everything, I just thought it was better.

[34:08] Olaf: Well, yeah. No, from a plot standpoint, the idea is so dumb, but it works because...

[34:16] J.J.: And I also, even though it's still outlandish and broad, I do think his performance is more refined and a little more restrained than Ace Ventura. Like Ace Ventura is definitely quotable and it's definitely funny, but at times it's too much.

[34:29] Olaf: Well, you can see through the course of each movie, everything he's doing gets more specific as each movie goes on. Meaning like in Ace, he's really broad because it looks like he's doing everything... He's throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's all broad strokes. With The Mask, he's given that power with The Mask to be what he's doing, but within the confines of the...

[34:50] J.J. Gonzalez: He's very specific with the choices he's in the characters he's choosing to portray and that by Dumb and Dumber, because he has an opportunity to work off of Jeff Daniels, it allows him to even be more specific with the choices he's making and the delivery with the jokes because they're not as over-the-top.

[35:09] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, and I do think that even though it's a little funny, we really got our first glimpse of Jim Carrey as a dramatic actor in Dumb and Dumber when he imagines that he's going to kill the husband at the end.

[35:17] J.J. Gonzalez: No, no, because there's some touching moments.

[35:22] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, there are. Oh, yeah, at the beginning.

[35:32] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and you don't get to really see that in... you don't see that at all.

[35:37] Olaf Adsaid: No, you see it a little bit in The Mask.

[35:40] J.J. Gonzalez: A little bit. No, there's a scene in Dumb and Dumber right after they lose their jobs and before they end up going on the road trip where Lloyd is standing in front of the mirror window and he's like, "I'm just tired of not being where I want to be," and it's really good.

[35:55] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, it is. It's a sort of grounded moment in this bucket of insanity. It reminds you that this character is a real person, that he's not the masked character. He's not Ace Ventura, right? He's just this guy who's trying his best and just to live in the world and to make it right, and you just... yeah, he's limited by his intelligence, not by his willingness to do things clearly as they go across the country to return a suitcase that they have no idea what's in it.

[36:26] J.J. Gonzalez: So they get there and then we'll just... well, then it's just a bunch of IOUs.

[36:32] Olaf Adsaid: With IOUs. They're like wiping their tears with money as they cry over the television commercial in the hotel room.

[36:40] J.J. Gonzalez: And I think the reason why I think Lauren Holly fits that movie better than if she had gotten Ace Ventura is because in Ace Ventura, you had to be able to kind of fight back.

[36:47] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, it's Ace, and Lauren Holly's never in the roles that I've seen her in. She's never been believable for me in that as a tough... like no, I even in Down Periscope, classic by the way, she's still soft-spoken and struggles with confidence. And even when she gets it later in the film, I just don't see her as a tough person.

[37:16] J.J. Gonzalez: Whereas Courtney Cox's character in Ace, I could see, oh yeah, she's definitely has it in her because we end up seeing a lot of that in her Friends character.

[37:26] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, so yeah, I agree. And she doesn't have to do much fighting back in Ace, but the moments that she does, like when they go to the party and all of them, you know...

[37:38] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah.

[37:55] Olaf Adsaid: So again, for me, The Mask, after rewatching all three, I love that type of... it's that Robin Williams genie, you know, where he's just... his mind is going in a million different directions and you're just there for the ride. And with The Mask, it is a very Jekyll and Hyde sort of story, and they don't hide that. But every time he's in the mask and the situations he's in, they're all different. It's not like he's putting the mask on again and he's this one-note character.

[38:26] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

[38:26] Olaf Adsaid: He's pulling all of these different things based on the situation he's in. I also love the music of The Mask, so that earns a few points there.

[38:34] J.J. Gonzalez: I mean, I like the music numbers, but the soundtrack for The Mask is just a little...

[38:40] Olaf Adsaid: Well, no, I mean, I'm talking about the numbers within the movie, you know, Cuban Pete, which they almost cut. They almost cut the Cuban Pete number because the director felt it slowed the story down. And then I think they test screened and they're like, "No, this is fantastic. I love it."

[38:57] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, but even the Coco Bongo scene when he first gets to the club and dances with Cameron Diaz.

[39:03] Olaf Adsaid: Oh, yeah, that's an awesome number. You get just enough of The Mask to where you want just a little bit more.

[39:08] J.J. Gonzalez: Well, I think that's the perfect way to do it.

[39:12] Olaf Adsaid: I agree. See, I was so enamored by Jim Carrey that that whole year, that next year, I was like, "He can do no wrong."

[39:20] J.J. Gonzalez: Well, sure. I mean, the next year he did Ace Ventura 2 and he did Batman Forever. He was a real...

[39:27] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, I take it back. You can do wrong.

[39:30] J.J. Gonzalez: That's gonna be a whole different episode. I don't even want to get into it.

[39:38] Olaf Adsaid: Let's not. Let's move on.

[39:41] J.J. Gonzalez: Well, you know, not to say that we're about to put a bow in this, but... and I feel like a broken record a lot of times, and I'm like, I really love... I'm really big with dates and years, and I remember thinking, "This dude's coming out with another one." And this is... we're still in '94. This is still the same year, and here we are about 30 years, you know, out of it.

[40:02] Olaf Adsaid: And I'm sure if I were to really dig in, you look at actors that do that many movies, especially when they're starting out, they'll take any...

[40:09] J.J. Gonzalez: Don't, don't...

[40:12] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, what are we doing? What are we doing?

[40:14] J.J. Gonzalez: But just a workhorse, right? But I think he had ten movies in a row that opened up at number one or ten movies in a row that went over a hundred million. It was something crazy like that.

[40:24] Olaf Adsaid: He had like Tom Cruise in the '90s where like every movie Tom Cruise did in the '90s...

[40:31] J.J. Gonzalez: Yes, because I was struggling to think who else has had that kind of a run.

[40:36] Olaf Adsaid: I guess, yeah, Tom in the '90s. He had like a hundred million with everything from like Days of Thunder to Jerry Maguire. He had like a six, seven-year period where everything he did was gold, and that was with Jim Carrey starting with Ace Ventura. He had those three, he had the '295' which we won't mention, and then Cable Guy in '96. I mean, he was doing stuff, Liar Liar, you know, which I love. He worked pretty constantly for a few years.

[41:00] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and he was 32 when he got Ace.

[41:07] Olaf Adsaid: So really, yeah, he spent the majority of his 20s doing stand-up, doing bits and pieces, bit parts here, and then he did In Living Color.

[41:12] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, he was 32.

[41:15] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, I mean, so at that point, sure, like you're right. I mean, we did the math. It was like 9 million that year, somewhere in that ballpark, and then by two years later, he was making 20.

[41:24] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and say 20 million was Cable Guy. What I find unfortunate is his dramatic chops are so good. Like, he's really underappreciated as a dramatic actor, I think even now.

[41:35] Olaf Adsaid: Well, I think that most comedians have that problem.

[41:42] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, the stigma. People see the comedian as the funny man, and that's what they want to see. So to have the opportunity to be serious, I think it kind of turns people off at first because that's not what they're used to.

[41:56] Olaf Adsaid: No, I agree. And Robin Williams fought against that a lot too early in his career, but he was able to balance it out.

[42:02] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I think he was given the opportunity to balance out a little bit more because it just blows my mind that Jim Carrey never got nominated for The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, and Eternal Sunshine.

[42:12] Olaf Adsaid: Well, I think a lot of people felt like The Truman Show was a huge snub.

[42:21] J.J. Gonzalez: I don't know about Man on the Moon. I mean, I think the performance and the movie is great, but I don't know if I necessarily would have nominated him. I would have nominated him for Eternal Sunshine.

[42:31] Olaf Adsaid: Oh, absolutely. What a movie. Holy crap, but that's a whole other deal.

[42:34] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, but yeah, no, this again going back to if we were to just look at and appreciate what happened in '94 and what we were given and what he was given because if we don't go see these movies, he doesn't get it. But if he doesn't make them, we don't get it either.

[42:50] Olaf Adsaid: So I guess before we put this to bed, my question to you is, would you recommend these three films now?

[42:59] J.J. Gonzalez: That's a great question. I think if you've seen them and it's been a while, yes, the answer to the question is yes. But for... let's say you've never seen any of them, would you recommend them?

[43:09] Olaf Adsaid: It depends on who I'm recommending it to, depends on the age. You know what I mean? Like if you're 20 years old and you're into comedy, I'd recommend all three of them, absolutely, because I think you're gonna... if you love comedy and you're anywhere from 18 to 28...

[43:25] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, okay, but if you're somebody who isn't sure about Jim Carrey, I would have to ask questions like, "What are you looking for? What do you want to... you know, what have you heard? What do you... what is your..."

[43:37] Olaf Adsaid: Okay, so let's say you run into somebody who has lived under a rock and hasn't seen these three films and they're not really into movies, they're not Jim Carrey fans. You still wouldn't suggest them watching it just because of the...

[43:54] J.J. Gonzalez: You know, I would probably recommend Ace first because it's really... because it's your intro to him. It's him doing what he... like you said, he threw everything at the wall. So he's leaning into all of his strengths to give you this character, and there are moments. Yeah, there are great moments.

[44:12] Olaf Adsaid: Okay, and I just love The Mask, so I think The Mask I would recommend all three. I would probably start with The Mask just to get that understanding that he's the living embodiment of a cartoon character, right? I feel like that would make some of the harshness of Ace Ventura more palatable.

[44:30] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, no, I agree because you are getting a grounded character of Stanley Ipkiss. He's an everyday guy just trying to, like you said, just trying to get through the world, who's then discovers the Loki mask, and then you get to see this other side of him as opposed to Ace where he's that way pretty much 99% of the movie, and in Dumb and Dumber, he's Lloyd about 99% of the movie. But with The Mask, you do get to see this Jekyll and Hyde, and you get to see him do both very well.

[44:56] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, yeah. Another Ghostbusters gem, the body shop. He takes his car in, and The Mask is the same fire station in Ghostbusters.

[45:06] J.J. Gonzalez: That's right. Yeah, yeah, shot out there. Well, there you have it, guys. That is the trifecta of Jim Carrey in 1994.

[45:14] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, what a year. Not only what a year for movies, but what a year for him because he gave us three heavy hitters. Incredible. So if you haven't seen them, we both recommend them.

[45:25] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and if it's just been a long time since you've watched them, if you get a chance, sit down, give them a watch, revisit old times, see how they play.

[45:34] Olaf Adsaid: Yeah, if they still hit like they did before.

[45:37] J.J. Gonzalez: Well, all right.

[45:41] Olaf Adsaid: All right. That was awesome. That was... man, that was fun.

[45:50] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and to be continued.

[45:56] Olaf Adsaid: To be continued. Back to the Movie Theater is hosted by J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adsaid, produced by me, Johnny Clay. J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adsaid, theme song and incidental music by The Dimes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Back to the Movie Theater and find us on YouTube at Back to the Movie Theater with J.J. and Olaf.