Sometimes everything just works

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 2010)

The comic from which this movie is derived is quite a dark piece of work. Happily, the movie adaptation chose to concentrate on the humorous and surrealistic elements which were always there. Even more happily, the movie coincided with an upsurge in Jim Carrey's career generated by his performance in Ace Ventura, and provided the perfect vehicle for his brand of face-pulling physical humour.
The story is serviceable, but is essentially no more than a vehicle for the wonderfully imaginative visual sequences.
This was one of the earliest movies in which sophisticated CGI provided truly eye catching sterling support to a storyline, and it is a joy to see Tex Avery-inspired cartoon goings on translated into photorealistic "real life" visuals. There are some terrific musical sequences too, and the movie is also very funny.
Oh, and it was Cameron Diaz' first movie. There are few stars whose first appearances on screen I recall (Ursula Andress, and then I'm searching) - Diaz in The Mask is another.