TheRetroCritic

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Despite the relatively unkind feedback Robert Zemeckis received after experimenting with CG animation in The Polar Express , he persevered and, in 2009, he delivered his own version of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey as Ebeneezer Scrooge... and the three ghosts. While the animation in Polar Express gave an unwanted creepy puppet quality to the child characters, here the visuals are much more polished and the actors' expressions are captured perfectly. It's fascinating to see Jim Carrey being turned into, not only an old man, but a younger Scrooge, a candle ghost and a big bearded spirit dude. The rest of the cast, which includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins, are also beautifully rendered into their CGI characters. There are still creepy visuals but this time it's very much on purpose as Zemeckis appears to have picked the scariest aspects of Polar Express and Beowulf in order to give every kid watching this movie nightmares throughout the holiday se

Released on Netflix this month, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond is a documentary revealing actor Jim Carrey's unusual behaviour on the set of Man On The Moon as he appeared to embody the spirit of ground-breaking comedian Andy Kaufman both on and off camera. A bushy-beard Jim Carrey is interviewed on the subject and this is intercut with actual footage gathered back in 1999 during Man On The Moon's production. We meet a Carrey completely committed to "be" Andy Kaufman (or the typically aloof Tony Clifton) from start to finish confusing just about everyone from cast-members to director Milos Forman. With the help of Kaufman's partner in crime Bob Zmuda, Carrey keeps this method acting train going no matter what, staging stunts at the Playboy Mansion, with the crew and reporters in the process. One staged incident, for example, sees him getting seemingly gravely injured while filming a wrestling scene in the film and getting carried out on a stretcher. The a

I play a bit of the SNES version of Batman Forever and talk about all things Batman. Riddle me this!

I finally review cult alien comedy Earth Girls Are Easy starring Geena Davies, Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey.

Upon hearing that a movie adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events starring Jim Carrey was in the works, I was excited to say the least. In case you don't already know: A Series Of Unfortunate Events is awesome. The books, I mean. The film... slightly less. Which is not to say that it's bad in any way or that I don't like it, quite the opposite. It's just that the film's overall more lighthearted approach took a lot out of what claimed to be a dark, super-downbeat tale of how unfair, cruel and miserable the world can be to innocents who deserve better. The film's admittedly clever opening, which tricks us into watching a ridiculously cute, colourful and happy cartoon before slapping us in the face with a rather gloomy Jude Law voice over and warning us about the unpleasantness of the story about to follow, is perfect and captures the spirit of the books really well. While characters in the film refer to some horrible things t

Who knew that 20 years and one sub-par prequel later, Dumb And Dumber would actually receive its long talked-about sequel starring one-off hit comedy duo Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels? Suck me sideways... Somehow, the Farrelly Brothers made it happen and this year we were treated to more dumb in the cartoonishly-titled Dumb And Dumber To . The film was a box-office hit in the U.S. and has been doing surprisingly well all over but was it truly worth the wait? Is Harry and Lloyd's comeback a glorious one or an Icelandic Snow Owl-style catastrophe? Being a die hard Dumb And Dumber fan since childhood myself, the bar was raised pretty high in terms of expectations but, admittedly, the idea of seeing a sequel with these guys alone was enough of a treat that I could forgive a heck of a lot. And so I did of a sequel boasting some great jokes and energetic, ridiculously fun performances from the two leads but also an unfocused, uneven script, a lazy storyline and a whole string of

Not content with painting his face green in The Mask and wearing nothing but green as The Riddler in Batman Forever , Jim Carrey decided to cover himself in green fur for Ron Howard's live-action version of Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas . This decision did pay off in that Carrey turned out to be the perfect choice to play the moody Grinch and, whether you like the movie or not, it's hard to deny the rubber-faced actor's energy makes his portrayal of the classic character a lot of fun from start to finish. Who else could have pulled off such a cartoonish role so convincingly? He even aces the old "You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch" tune in one of the movie's best and most memorable sequences. The make-up effects on Carrey as well as on all the actors playing the Whos of Who-ville are impressive and spot-on, bringing Dr Seuss' unique visual style to a live-action setting beautifully. Unfortunately, while the film boasts tons of Christma

Finally we have a Dumb And Dumber To trailer! Guess what? It's pretty dumb! Can't complain, look pretty fun :)

Jim Carrey burst onto the Hollywood scene in a big way in 1994 with the likes of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Dumb & Dumber and The Mask . The latter stood out for many thanks to its mischievous cartoon vibe and its impressive special effects. Based on the Dark Horse comic books, The Mask saw Jim Carrey play mild-mannered banker Stanley Ipkiss, an overly nice, unlucky loser who gets stepped on by everyone around him and just kinda lets it happen. Until one day he finds some strange wooden mask which basically turns him into a superhero. Or, rather, a green-headed Tex Avery-infused freak who travels by tornado, spouts out catchphrases and wears bright and colourful suits. He becomes everything he's not and has a ball being The Mask until this seemingly unlimited power backfires and Ipkiss' life gets out of control. Before all this, he meets Cameron Diaz's femme fatale, a dancer at the "Coco Bongo Club" and the villain Dorian's (an intimidating Peter G

Soon after Jim Carrey's darker turn in Ben Stiller's The Cable Guy , he partnered up again with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective director Tom Shadyac for Liar Liar , a much more family-friendly commercial hit about a lawyer cursed by his son to not lie for an entire day. If The Cable Guy alienated audiences from Carrey, Liar Liar got them back. The film saw the comedian go back to his manic, rubber-faced roots and deliver an over-the-top, cartoon-esque performance. Re-watching it, Liar Liar walks a weird line as it looks and feels like a kids movie and yet boasts a lot of adult humour. After all, Fletcher Reed's (Carrey) entire case revolves around an affair, one which we actually hear going on in a recording at one point, and he himself is portrayed as something of a womaniser here and there. Yet the tone throughout is very easy-going, light-hearted and its hook is something right out of, say, Jumanji or a similar type kid-friendly outing. In fact, Liar Liar is sort of li

So there's a new Dumb & Dumber film coming soon (or "dumbing" soon) and a couple of teaser posters have finally been released. Not exactly too revealing or exciting but hey, it's only the dumbinning. More substantial  Dumb And Dumber To news will pop up soon, I'm sure. In the meantime...

Back in 2000, Jim Carrey reunited with the Farrelly Brothers to work on post- Dumb & Dumber comedy Me, Myself & Irene , a movie which certainly made the most of Carrey's Jerry Lewis-esque rubber-faced antics. Carrey stars as mild-mannered Rhode Island cop Charlie, whose wife leaves him unexpectedly to raise the three children she had with a short genius limo driver by himself. Charlie is way too nice for his own good, bottling up all his anger and other, darker emotions deep inside as the whole town steps on him daily, from old-timers to even little girls. This is until, one day, Charlie loses it and develops another personality, Hank, who takes over every so often, bringing out an infinitely more mean-spirited side of his personality. He starts taking medication to contain Hank but while he's giving Renee Zelwegger's incidental outlaw Irene a ride to another town, he forgets his pills as it turns out that Irene is in the middle of a rather dodgy plot. Unfortun

Here's one it took me a while to finally watch. The idea of Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as crappy magicians duelling with a Jim Carrey David Blaine parody sounded great but somehow I missed it. Having finally seen it, I'm not entirely sure as to why the film exists but it did have its moments. The film opens on Carrell and Buscemi as kids with the former picking up a boxed magic set presented by a Houdini-style magician (played by Alan Arkin) and developing a passion for that particular occupation. We cut to present day where both friends have partnered up and are now in-house magicians over at some fancy Vegas hotel: they've been doing their act for years and, although they're good at it, it's clearly dated and the arrival of a new stunt-based magician steals their thunder to the point where they're soon separated and out of a job. Oh, and along the way Olivia Wilde shows up. It's a good story with some great characters so the film definitely had

Directed by Ben Stiller, The Cable Guy is a dark comedy starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick that proved maybe too weird for audiences back in 1996. It went from being treated as a joke to gaining a cult following over time but how does it fare today? The film sees Broderick's loser Steven move into a new apartment after awkwardly separating from his girlfriend (played by Leslie Mann) and meeting his "cable guy", a strange dude calling himself Chip Douglas (Jim Carrey) who speaks with a lisp, has a rather unpleasant sense of humour and who molests Steven's wall the very first time he meets him. Chip desperately wants to be friends with Steven and basically pushes this friendship onto him but when Chip finally crosses the line and Steven wants out, he soon becomes the latter's worst enemy. I could certainly see how going from The Mask or Dumb & Dumber to this would be a bit of a jump but seeing as, by this point, Jim Carrey had already played a dem

Back when Jim Carrey was still a relative unknown, he starred in this 1985 vampire comedy about a high-school kid who falls for the charms of an older woman who just happens to be a vampire thirsting for the taste of his delicious virgin blood. Mmmmm... It's a bit weird to think that I watched this film several times as a young kid and liked it seeing as I don't think I even knew what the hell a virgin was at that time. I guess I must have just focused on the vampire stuff and the goofy jokes and somehow the film still made some sort of sense even without all the sexual undertones and... overtones. As a comedy, Once Bitten 's actually pretty fun. You've got Jim Carrey playing a surprisingly more restrained type of role than we're used to seeing him play these days yet still providing the odd burst of trademark physical rubberiness. The film itself is a typical 80's teen comedy about a group of guys going out to get laid when things go zanily wrong. It'