Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

There's a moment early in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective where Jim Carrey delivers a line through his backside. And the remarkable thing isn't that it's in the film. It's that it works. That's the Carrey magic in a nutshell, and this film is basically a feature-length demonstration of it.

This is peak early Carrey, full stop. Rubber-faced, hyperactive, completely unhinged, and utterly committed. He plays Ace Ventura, a flamboyant, obsessive pet detective hired to track down the Miami Dolphins' kidnapped mascot, a dolphin named Snowflake. The plot is tissue-thin. The logic is essentially nonexistent. And from the very first scene, the film knows exactly what it is and leans into it with everything it has.

The gags come flying at you like confetti from a cannon. Some of them land beautifully. Some of them thud. But there's never a moment where you doubt that Carrey is giving it everything he's got. He isn't just doing funny voices and pulling faces, though he does plenty of both. He's constructing a character out of pure, beautiful chaos. Ace is specific. He's odd in a deliberate, detailed way. The hair, the clothes, the bizarre social rituals, it all adds up to something more than a bloke being loud on screen. It's a genuine comedic creation.

Now, I won't pretend the film is without its problems. More than a few of the jokes are pure 90s shlock, gross-out gags and slapstick that range from brilliant to groan-worthy. And there are moments that haven't aged particularly well, the kind of thing that makes you wince a bit in 2024 in a way nobody was blinking at in 1994. That's worth acknowledging honestly rather than glossing over it.

But here's the thing. When I stack this up against the kind of lazy, half-hearted dumb comedies that were being churned out around the same period, Ace Ventura feels genuinely inventive by comparison. There's an energy and an imagination to it that a lot of its contemporaries just don't have. Carrey was in the middle of an extraordinary run at this point, and if you want to see how he stacks up to his other work from that era, my reviews of The Mask and The Truman Show show the full range of what he could do when the material was right.

The supporting cast deserve a mention too. Everyone around Carrey plays it relatively straight, which is absolutely the correct call. Comedy like this needs a world that takes itself seriously even as it falls apart. The straighter everyone else plays it, the more gloriously absurd Carrey gets to be. It's a solid bit of tonal discipline from a film that looks, on the surface, like it has no discipline at all.

And yes, the soundtrack absolutely slaps. Don't @ me.

Is it a classic? No. Not by any honest measure. The plot wouldn't survive ten minutes of scrutiny, and there are stretches where even Carrey's limitless energy can't quite rescue a gag that simply doesn't land. But it's got enough manic charm, enough genuinely iconic moments, and enough of that specific mid-90s Carrey electricity to fully justify its cult status. When he's on, he's on, and this film catches him at a moment when he was burning brightest.

Three stars. Not smart, not deep, occasionally uncomfortable in hindsight. But alive in a way that a lot of comedies simply aren't. If Jim Carrey is your thing, this is required viewing. And even if he isn't, you might find yourself laughing more than you expected to.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1994  | Watched: 2025-11-02

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: YouTube TV
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More with Jim Carrey: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) · Yes Man (2008) · The Mask (1994) · The Truman Show (1998)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)