The list of 90s comedy actors is a damn good one, including the likes of Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Ben Stiller, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, & Robin Williams. But there is one actor who stood above the rest for me. Do you want to know who it is? Do ya? Do ya? Alrighttttyyyy thennnnn, it is the man of 1000 faces, the wild and energetic, Jim Carrey. During some time off in December, and the beginning of the New Year, I watched 19 of Carrey's movies. I thought it would be a cool idea if each month I watched a bunch of movies from a specific actor/actress/director and relived their glory days. This seemed like a great idea until realizing how long it takes to watch 10, even 5 movies. I probably went a little over the top with Jim, but he is my favorite. I won't have time to watch this many movies normally, so I think I may try to make this a quarterly event, or limit it to 4 movies per actor/actress.
Anyways, let's take a look at the 19 movies I watched and see if you recognize any of them, which I'm sure you will:
It is crazy to think that in 1994 Jim Carrey essentially launched his career with 3 top notch comedies: Ace Ventura Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber. His career stayed steady with pretty great films through the 2000s including The Truman Show, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Bruce Almighty. Although his films have declined in quality over the past ten years or so, he has made a plethora of hilarious stuff over the last 25 years.
I'm going to start off with a bold statement, but one thing I noticed in almost all of Jim Carrey's films is that there is always a woman with large breasts that are presented to their fullest. I am telling you, almost every single movie of his, especially when he started to get hot, includes some big jugs. Perhaps it was written into his contract that he had to work with a large breasted woman? Or maybe it was just the 90s? Go ahead and think about the films above and recall any and all of those scenes. I'll put this seen from Liar Liar here for ya as a starter.
Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to some of my favorites. Of all of the movies listed above, I think my favorite movie of Carrey's would have to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This movie (2004) is classified as a romantic science fiction comedy-drama in which Carrey plays a shy character named Joel Barish. The all-star cast also includes, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. Now I don't like spoiling movies for people, so if you haven't seen it, here is the description, "When their relationship turns sour, a young couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories." Highly recommend!
Two movies of Carrey's that will always have a special place in my heart are The Mask and Ace Ventura. I must have watched each of these at least 30 times each growing up. Often quoting them, "No. It wasn't me. It was the one-armed man.," "If I'm not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer," and "Do NOT go in there! Woooweee!" Ah just hilarious classics.
My least favorite movie out of the films would have to be Dumb & Dumber To. Coming out 20 years after the original, it was a sad, 2014, sequel that should never have been made. Although they are essentially acting the same as they do in Dumb & Dumber, it just isn't funny watching two full grown men be idiots. But I won't lie, I did chuckle a few times throughout the movie, regardless I highly don't recommend watching. Just watch the original again.
Jim's most recent movie, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, really shined a new light on his acting for me. It brought to the attention his work on the set of Man on the Moon and his work as a method actor. Carrey only uses method acting in a select few of his films, but when he does, he goes all in. In this documentary, he also drops some philosophical knowledge during his interviews. This movie is currently on Netflix, and if you are like me, and haven't seen Man on the Moon, don't worry, you don't need to. I highly recommend checking this out.
There are a few movies of Jim Carrey's that I don't own and have never seen. Man on the Moon, A Christmas Carol, Fun with Dick & Jane, I Love you Phillip Morris, A Series of Unfortunate Events, & Once Bitten. If I haven't listed any other classic Jim Carrey films, let me know what I am missing out on.
And before we close this out, let's not forget about Jim Carrey's hilarious skits on In Living Color. In Living Color was a comedy skit series similar to SNL, that was on Fox and lasted five seasons in the early 90s. Nolan introduced me to these during college. Here are two of my favorite skits from that show:
Rachel and I have some ideas for which actors/actresses to take a deep dive into next. This includes Emma Stone, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Daniel Day Lewis or Will Ferrell.
But I am curious who you think would be a good actor/actress, or maybe even director, to watch their films. Let me know!
"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
Happy movie watching
Josh