The total amount of laughs and excitement added up earns this an 8/10 in my book

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2008)

I was just under eight years old when "The Mask" was released, but I probably heard about it around then. I also first saw the film probably as early as 1995, though I'm not sure if I saw the whole thing. My clearest memory of that experience is the scene where Jim Carrey puts the mask on and says, "It's party time!" I saw it again a few years later, in my early teens (left with a clearer memory of it that time), and have seen it twice within the past couple years. I may not have enjoyed the second viewing of the two QUITE as much as the first, but it at least came close, and was still a lot better than the last Jim Carrey movie I watched, "Liar Liar".
Stanley Ipkiss is a shy bank clerk who is easily pushed around and can't seem to ever be romantically successful. However, after one unlucky day, he finds a mysterious mask floating in the water near the bridge! He takes it back to his apartment with him, where he tries it on, and it magically turns him into a crazy, powerful, tough, aggressive, green-headed alter ego, The Mask! He doesn't know this at first, but this mask is an ancient one that represents Loki, the Norse night god of mischief! As the Mask, the bank clerk begins to wreak havoc in the corridor, and then outside, where he scares off a bunch of street thugs! He then wakes up the next morning, thinking it was all a dream, but he is wrong! After this, he continues to put the mask on at night, and tends to have better luck than he did before he found it, including his luck with romance, winning the heart of his love interest, Tina Carlyle. However, nobody in the city knows who's behind this mask, and since Stanley tends to cause trouble with it on, the police are after him. Not only that, he also finds the local mob after him!
The last time I watched this 1994 blockbuster, a couple nights ago, I certainly didn't find it consistently hilarious, and it took a little while for it to really pick up. The first REALLY funny part I found was when Stanley Ipkiss' borrowed car falls apart just before he finds the mask. After that, there are quite a few very funny, sometimes hilarious moments thanks to Ipkiss' green alter ego, including the part where he pretends he's dying in a mobster's arms. The Mask is a rather silly character, but that doesn't mean not funny. The humour still isn't as consistent as I had hoped, and the scene where Stanley, with his mask on, forcing everyone around to dance may be a bit overlong. However, it's not entirely the humour that's making me give "The Mask" an 8/10. It also gets suspenseful at times, especially towards the end. So, I couldn't rate this film any more than a 7 if it relied entirely on humour for its entertainment value, but with the humour AND adrenaline combined, I think an 8 is more like it. Also, something I got out of this film that I obviously wouldn't have back in the mid-nineties is Cameron Diaz, who is so hot here in the role of Tina Carlyle!
"The Mask" is not the greatest comedy ever made, and Jim Carrey's antics are not always funny, but they usually work, unlike in "Liar Liar", where his silly voices, sounds, etc. got on my nerves a bit. Here, his character's alter ego is an amusing one, and is a lot like a cartoon character, so it's not much of a surprise that this movie spawned an animated series, which brings back memories, as I saw some episodes of that cartoon during its fairly brief run and enjoyed them. If you can't stand Carrey as a comedian in general, then I'm sure his performance here would be no exception to you in this film. On the other hand, for Jim Carrey fans (or those who SOMETIMES find him funny), who want a comedy, action, and fantasy adventure, this successful blockbuster from fourteen years ago could easily turn out to be an entertaining experience.