By: Corey Lack
The Mask was a movie released back in 1994 starring Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz and was based off of the comic series of the same name. That said, it is very different from the source material as it is more family friendly than being about what is essentially a super-powered serial killer. Anyway, the story follows Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), a nice, but very insecure bank clerk, who finds a mysterious mask that turns him into a toon-powered wild man in a zoot suit. While he tries to use and understand the mask to improve his life and win the heart of the beautiful Tina Carlyle (Diaz), Stanley has to stay ahead of the police that want to arrest him and the gangsters that want payback for his actions as the Mask.
This is a very funny movie. I can almost compare it to the Looney Tunes, which makes sense considering Stanley is a big fan of them. The parts of the movie that were definitely the funniest was when the Mask (the character, not the movie) was in full swing. Both of the characters are clearly written for Carrey as his usual wild, off-the-wall comedic skills show in both, but when he’s Ipkiss, it’s like he’s holding back and it actually makes sense considering Stanley is holding back a lot of his true self. When he becomes the Mask, it’s like the director just told Carrey to “do whatever you want.”
The actions sequences that don’t involve the Mask were almost a step down from the ones with the character. In fact, they were almost boring in comparison. There wasn’t much really inherently wrong with them. It’s just the Mask scenes took this to level above them.
The Mask was a fun movie that I would definitely recommend. Its story doesn’t really have much of an in-depth plot, but I don’t think it really needs to. The comedy and loony scenes make the entire movie and are ones that people remember years after seeing them. I’d give this movie 9 balloon tommy guns out of 10.
