#60 Son of the Mask (2005) (Colin)

It's now time to hand you over to our Bad Movies Score Center:

Highlander 2 Superman 4

Speed 2 Jaws 4

Troll 2 Leonard Part 6

Only joking, these movies are off course sequels, (except Leonard, which thankfully only has the 1 film) and they have all appeared on our 100 Bad Movies list so far. This was just a humorous, (or at least an attempt at humour), way of me saying it is not unusual for sequels to appear on our list. This is why, when I saw that the next movie on our list was a sequel, I was not in the least bit surprised.

Our next movie is the follow up to the 1994 comedy hit, The Mask, which was both financially and critically successful. Because of this a follow up always seemed likely, however, there was one small problem.  The main star behind The Mask, Jim Carrey, declined to reprise his role of Stanley Ipkiss. Wikipedia explains that this is due to Carrey's experiences of the sequel to Ace Ventura, in which he struggled to regain the enthusiasm and challenges of playing a character he had already played before. This is, off course, understandable and I really wish Sandra Bullock had had the same feeling before agreeing to reprise her role of Annie Porter in Speed 2!

Therefore our next movie, Son of the Mask, is a sequel without the main character from the original. Did this make the movie any less enjoyable? We pressed play and found out for you.......

We start with the only character from The Mask to appear in Son of the Mask, Dr. Arthur Neuman, (Ben Stein), who is lecturing on Norse Mythology in Edge City Museum.  Proudly on display is the mask, which Neuman explains, belonged to a mischievous, practical joke loving God called Loki, (Alan Cumming). Loki had sent this mask to earth and whoever wears the mask, takes on the powers of Loki. If you haven't seen the original movie, then what this means is that the wearer will turn green, have odd superpowers and will act like a tit.

Neuman is interrupted by Loki himself, who, it appears, would quite like his mask back, (presumably because Carrey no longer needs it). He breaks into the glass display and finds out that the mask is a fake. A bit miffed he storms out, vowing to find his original mask. But where can it be?

We don't have to wait too long to find out, as in the next scene, a dog picks it up out of a stream and takes it back to his house, (well his owner's house, the dog doesn't own a house, that would be silly....... He owns a bedsit).  The dog, we learn, is called Otis and belongs to failed cartoonist, Tim Avery, (Jamie Kennedy) and his wife Tonya, (Traylor Howard). Tim does not think too much about the mask, until he finds it inside his car on the way to his work's Halloween party. Despite the fact that Tim's face really does not need a Halloween mask, Tim feels he should make the effort and so puts on the mask.

This transforms Tim into a character who is not unlike the Mask character from the original movie. Cue lots of cartoon slapstick humour, fast talking one liners and a very long, but amusing rendition of 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. Tim becomes the highlight of an otherwise very dull party and Tim's boss, Daniel Moss, (Steven Wright), is so impressed with his antics, that he believes Tim's character could make for a successful new cartoon.

After the party, Tim feels a bit amorous and, still wearing the mask, makes sweet smokin' love to Tonya. This results in Tonya falling pregnant and giving birth to a boy called Alvey. Alvey possesses the powers of Loki, (having silly hair, wearing a long black leather coat and unsuccessfully hiding his Scottish accent for 90 mins), which means he is a practical joker, like Loki and hits upon the 'funny' idea of sending Tim bonkers do-lally so he has to be shipped off to the nut farm.

Alvey sets to work on his plan by starting to sing and dance like the frog from the classic Warner Bros. cartoon, 'One Froggy Evening'. This off course puts Tim on edge as it's not every day your baby starts singing Tin Pan Alley.  A frightened Tim runs to his neighbours house with the singing baby in his arms.  However, as the neighbour opens the door, Alvey, just like the frog in 'One Froggy Evening', immediately stops singing now that he has an audience.

Meanwhile Loki has learned from his father, Odin, (Bob Hoskins), that a baby has been born from the mask and so has started tracking down all of the new-borns in order to find him. After several failed attempts he finally knocks on Tim's door.

A very tired and confused Tim opens the door. (Tim's look is because as well as Alvey driving him potty, Otis the dog, having put on the mask, has also taken on a slapstick persona and the 2 have been doing cartoon battle around the house). Loki walks in and despite the fact that there are several Otis and Alvey shaped holes around the house, thinks nothing is wrong and leaves. It is only when Tim then puts Alvey in the car to take him to the doctor and Alvey starts to puke fluorescent green sick, that the penny drops and Loki realises he has found the right baby.

What follows is some good old fashioned cartoon violence as Loki attempts to get the mask back from Tim, but Tim puts the mask on to fight Loki. The 2 fight in ever more elaborate and comical ways until eventually they realise they are evenly matched and it's a stalemate.

The final battle is not a physical fight but a psychological one as Loki, who has grown fond of the wee chip of the old block, wants the baby.  Alvey is put in the middle of the 2 and Loki produces lots of big fun looking toys out of thin air to try to tempt him. Alvey moves towards Loki but, when Tim removes the mask to show his true form, Alvey immediately moves to Tim and hugs him.

Odin then appears and furious with Loki for failing to get the mask back, threatens to dis-own him. Tim steps in, realising that his son is the most precious gift he could have and tells Odin that he should remember that about his own offspring. Odin agrees, embraces Loki and Tim gives them the Mask.

The film ends with Tim using the antics of Alvey and Otis as material for the cartoon his boss has just commissioned and Tonya announcing she is pregnant again. Oh oh! I smell a sequel!

Now this is normally the part of the blog in which I would normally slag off the movie whilst chucking in a few fart gags. Unfortunately, however, I have an issue with this movie. I quite liked it.

Jamie Kennedy is no Jim Carrey, an obvious statement but one I need to mention immediately. He doesn’t have the facial expression range of Carrey, the comic timing or the screen presence. But that is not an issue as Kennedy does a more than adequate job of bringing a new character to the movie. Had he just played a watered down version of Stanley Ipkiss, I’m sure everyone would be screaming, ‘Oh he’s just trying to be Carrey’ and frankly if you keep comparing this movie to the original, then you are never going to be happy!

You could argue that Kennedy’s mask character is almost identical to Carrey’s and that would be true to an extent. The issue is that off course the mask character should be the same as the wearer takes on the powers of Loki. If this worries people, then perhaps it’s time they started drinking chamomile tea or going to yoga classes.

In fact, Kennedy’s mask and the CGI used for his cartoon-esque ‘props’ is very good, however, when it comes to the CGI they use occasionally for Alvey, it is a different story.

For Alvey, they mix scenes of a real baby playing Alvey with scenes of a CGI version, (presumably because it is quite tricky to teach a baby to sing and dance Tin Pan Alley?). Unfortunately when the CGI is used, Alvey just looks scary and it really obvious that the technology they use is not quite up to the job. His facial expressions are weird, the eyes are glazed and the only saving grace is that Alvey is not the worst CGI character I ever seen, (that accolade, off course, belongs to Jar Jar bloody Binks!).

But this is really my only gripe with the movie, otherwise I think this is actually a fairly funny family film. So I can confirm this will mean far fewer fart gags in this blog, but hey, I’m sure they’ll be far more movies on our list in which I can talk about bottie bugles, trouser trumpets and stepping on ducks.

In the meantime I am going to have to be semi, (tee-hee, semi), serious and say that the visual gags are quite funny, especially when Alvey and Otis are having their mask induced cartoon fights. I like other gags such as Loki informing Tim that it’s now time to do it ‘The Hard Way’and on cue, produces a large suitcase with ‘The Hard Way’ written on it from which he produces a ludicrously big weapon, (ooer! 2 innuendo gags in one paragraph, maybe the smut content of this blog will be around average after all!).

OK guys, this is not The Mask and is not as funny as The Mask, but as its own movie, it’s actually not that bad. In actual fact, it feels more like a ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ movie as there seems to be far more cartoon violence based humour. And that, is not a bad thing.

I think the reason this movie appears on our list is because a whole bunch of Jim Carrey fans bitched and moaned when he refused to do the sequel and so went along to showings of Son of the Mask just so they could carp on about how 'not as good as the original it was' on social media and various blogs.

All I can say is ‘get over it guys!’ If you are a Carrey fan and cannot separate the original movie from this sequel, then don’t bother putting yourself through it and making yourself miserable for 90 mins. However, if you are willing to put the original to the back of your mind and to treat this as a standalone version, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised and will probably have some chuckles along the way.

So, one froggy evening, why not don your top hat and cane, sing ‘hello my baby’ at the top of your voice and settle down to enjoy this decent family movie.