Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective – Animal loving Private Detective, Ace Ventura, works to reunite pets with their owners. When he is tasked to find Snowflake, the dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins that has been abducted, his skills are put to the test as the mystery deepens and dangers appear at every turn, will Ace find Snowflake before the Superbowl?

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) – Director: Tom Shadyac

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4781518

Rating: 12

Running Length: 86 mins

Starring: Jim Carrey, Courtney Cox, Sean Young

Genre: Comedy, Sport, Crime

REVIEW: ‘ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE’

This is the movie that effectively launched Jim Carrey’s career (although The Mask and Dumb and Dumber would cement it). Ace Ventura was a breakout hit at the time thanks in large part to Carrey’s extreme over the top acting style which breathed life into what could otherwise have been tired jokes. But are you remembering it with rose tinted glasses?

A little, there are certainly parts of the movie that have not aged well. There is an undercurrent of homophobic and, in a modern context, transphobic jokes. Ace getting himself committed into a mental health facility is completely tone deaf. You could argue it was a different time and indeed it was. But a few scenes with 2019 eyes do cause an uncomfortable shift on the sofa.

That said, the overblown silliness still holds up; the whole sequence where Ace stealthy enters a building where the stealth is utterly rubbish and completely unnecessary is a particular highlight. Other characters flitter in and out but all are there for Carrey to bounce off and the result is a larger than life movie that manages to fit saving pets around a rather compelling ‘whodunnit’, which is no mean feat. If Carrey rubs you up the wrong way then this is never going to be your movie, but ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ lets plenty of laughs off the leash.

CONTENT: IS ‘ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

There is moderate bad language early on with characters saying things like ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass’, ‘son of a bitch’, and ‘assholes’.

Ace returns a dog to its rightful owner and the woman is wearing a very low cut top. The dog licks the top of her breasts. She expresses her gratitude to Ace by standing in front of him and then kneeling out of shot accompanied by a zip sound. He is pulled back and forth and has to hold on to a beam to stop from falling over. This is not played for eroticism but for laughs and the camera stays above the waist even if it is a clear oral sex act. This lasts around 10 seconds.

A dolphin is stolen and it has a syringe injected into it.

When referring to a police chief that Ace doesn’t like he acknowledges her by saying, “Yes, Satan?”

When trying to remember a past client Ace states ‘Oh yeah, the bitch’ – although he clarifies by referring to a dog immediately after.

One overweight cop taunts Ace who retorts with fat jokes throughout. He also insults the size of the man’s penis and refers to ‘porking his wife’.

Ace falls into a shark tank and is violently dragged back and forth. However, this is a comedy moment and no injury detail is shown.

Ace is trying to investigate all the members of a football team who own a specific ring. In doing so he stands next to a man in a bathroom and looks over at him urinating to look at the ring. The man mistakes this as attraction and smiles, before following Ace out of the bathroom using a negative stereotype ‘gay walk’.

Two characters have sex. Arms and legs are shown to bash into objects around the bed. A parrot bobs its head in time with the activities.

Ace visits the family home of an ex-footballer who had become mentally unstable. The person’s bedroom is full of effigies inciting violence and death on another player, knives lodged in helmets, and writing on the walls such as ‘Die Dan Die’.

Ace visits Shady Acres, a care institution for the mentally unstable. The doctors and other patients are all quiet and peaceful but Ace’s attempts to blend in has him dressed in a tutu, sporting unkempt hair, and shouting about an obsession with football. You may wish to discuss with children how this scene is not respectful to those with mental health issues.

Ace becomes disgusted with himself after learning the true nature of an earlier encounter. He uses a sink plunger on his face, excessively vomits (we see this only from behind) and constantly scrubs his teeth. These scene is not one that would play out well with modern sensibilities. A repeat of the disgust is played out during an ending scene at a dock after the police arrive.

One character forcibly grabs the testicles of a man and squeezes hard saying that they will ‘crush’ them.

Ace tears the clothes off a woman down to underwear to prove a point

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE’ FOR KIDS?

‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ may contain plenty of dated and off colour jokes that don’t stand up to today’s standards but by and large, the comedy is still pretty solid throughout. We feel the content in this movie should be appropriate for kids aged 12 and over, however we recommend parental supervision to discuss some of the themes to reassure or encourage empathy for more vulnerable people.

• Violence: 2/5 (punches thrown throughout)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5
• Fear Factor: 1/5
• Sexual Content: 4/5 (lots of sex references and sexual humour. Homophobic jokes that were common in the 90s but unlikely to turn up now)
• Bad Language: 4/5 (not strong but constant)
• Dialogue 2/5 (threats and some tone deaf jokes)
• Other Notes deals with themes of tenacity, animal welfare, personal identity, corporate sponsorship, mental health, and the aftermath of sporting mistakes

Words by Mike Record