The Mask 1994 [Last Added]

So that’s the problem with the 1994 version of The Mask. Its script is a mess, full of half-baked McGuffins and bad jokes. The result of over-exerting yourself in the pursuit of a joke? A frantic, undisciplined mess, the likes of which we’ve never seen before or since. All that aside, if you’re expecting The Mask to be a parody of the superhero genre in the same vein as Batman Returns, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. There is a series of references to the genre, but when you first go in, you’re not going to get it.

Coming off of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Jim Carrey’s career was primed to become a one-man comedy powerhouse, but through a series of missteps, he ended up in The Mask in 1994. Make no mistake, this is the most successful out of all his cartoonish characters, spawning a sequel, three TV series, an animated TV series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (also, most likely the only movie to ever make Peter Lorre a star), a video game and so on. But it turns out that when you get a guy this fundamentally talented, all you need is a good script and some really good jokes, and he’ll get through most anything.

The first thing that stands out is the title sequence. It’s not just that it’s the wrong title sequence; it’s that it’s a pitch-perfect parody of the superhero genre. The shot of the masked man launching himself through the air is straight out of Superman II; the music cues are straight out of Batman Returns; the red-and-black coloring is straight out of Batman Forever; and the inevitable superhero fight scene is straight out of Batman Returns. It’s a good parody, but one that is very obviously unadorned. Were a version of The Mask to come out today, it would be a very different product. Any of the more recent iterations of the character (yes, even the abysmal 1995 version) would be better off being a straight parody of the superhero genre. 827ec27edc