Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

I don't think you can knock Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The patented Jim Carrey act wore quickly thin and I think today I would view it as more of the annoying same rather than the original and impressive comedy it was at the time. I suppose we shouldn't blame them for trying to recreate it's success but I'm going to anyway.

Amounting to an excuse for Carrey to do "his thing", When Nature Calls stretches the premise of the original till it snaps off and it's left holding the short end. Beginning with a series of humourless and common parodies, it sets Ace up as some sort of internationally recognised talent rather than the bizarre and hapless small-town-detective-who-done-good of the original. He jumps about and gurns a lot until it's revealed the evil English bloke is English and evil and that there was something about him being a detective which we'd forgotten in all the mincing about in a safari park.

It does I will admit contain some brilliant moments in which I found myself laughing and then feeling slightly dirty for enjoying this sort of thing. The pictured scene with the arrows, while part of an unfunny sequence raised a guffaw, as did the sudden appearance of the monster truck. Sadly these moments are far too few and further between for sheer comedy to save it's flailing plot. Many of the gags are pure gross out humour, which I've never really understood and even more are simply repetition of the original film.

There are laughs to be had, especially if you're not already numbed to the humour of his physical comedy, but there are simply better examples. Watch those instead.