Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Steve Oedekerk

Writers (WGA):

Jack Bernstein (characters)
Steve Oedekerk (written by)

Release Date:

10 November 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Mystery

Tagline:

Most people wouldn't last one minute in the real wild nature. Ace Ventura, not even a second.

Plot:

Pet detective Ace Ventura comes out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of a rare white bat, the symbol of an African tribe.

Plot Keywords:

Bat | White Bat | African Tribe | Helicopter | Lifting Person In Air

Awards:

5 wins & 3 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Nov. 21	10:00 PM	MTV
Sun. Nov. 22	4:00 AM	MTV

Cast

Jim Carrey	...	Ace Ventura
Ian McNeice	...	Fulton Greenwall
Simon Callow	...	Vincent Cadby
Maynard Eziashi	...	Ouda
Bob Gunton	...	Burton Quinn
Sophie Okonedo	...	The Wachati Princess
Tommy Davidson	...	The Tiny Warrior
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Hitu (as Adewale)
Danny D. Daniels	...	Wachootoo Witch Doctor
Sam Motoana Phillips	...	Wachootoo Chief
Damon Standifer	...	Wachati Chief
Andrew Steel	...	Mick Katie
Bruce Spence	...	Gahjii
Tom Grunke	...	Derrick McCane (as Thomas Grunke)
Arsenio 'Sonny' Trinidad	...	Ashram Monk

Also Known As:

Ace Ventura Goes to Africa

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude humor.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS

Certification:

South Korea:All | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Chile:14 | Denmark:12 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/6 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #34152)

Filming Locations:

777 Ranch - 1829 County Road 432, Hondo, Texas, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The Monster Truck Driven by ace (Jim Carrey) is a 1989 Chevrolet S-10 Modified.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the Chief's Hut, prior to Ace being spit on by the chief and his son, A Scarlet Macaw is clearly visible next to the chief. Scarlet Macaws are native to South America, not Africa

Quotes:

Vincent Cadby: [Ace moans and howls upon entering a room sporting numerous stuffed animal heads] Something wrong, Mr. Ventura?
Ace: Of course not. This is a lovely room of death.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Shining (1980)

Soundtrack:

Blur the Technicolor

It's Just Plain Funny

Is it dumb? Well, it's definitely low-brow, but it also has some gags that are undeniably clever. Is it racist? Yeah, a little, but it's also satirizing old stereotypes about "Dark Africa." Is it immature and and gross and sophomoric and over-the-top? Yes. Yes, it is.

But someone (well, me) once said the only thing comedies have to be is funny. And this movie is dang funny. Need I remind anybody of the scene where Ace insists on dropping a slinky down the hundreds of steps leading up to a Buddhist temple? ("It was RIGHT there!") Or the slideshow in which Ace's hand appears to greedily devour a poacher's crotch? That's just hilarious!

The great thing about this movie is that it doesn't settle for outlandish set-ups that only seem to be jokes. This movie gets full bang for its comedic buck. Do we have a fight with a crocodile presented in-and-of-itself as humor? No! In a lesser film, perhaps. But Ace Ventura goes the extra mile, bringing us childish schoolyard taunts ("Stop hittin' yourself! Stop hittin yourself!") And is it enough to have Ace chasing the villain through the jungle in a monster truck? No - he actually pulls up next to him and utters a bon mot worthy of Groucho. Also, where did that monster truck come

from?! The sheer resolve not to explain the truck's presence is a sublimely satirical dig at movies that might place monster trucks in the jungle just for cheap, lazy wackiness.

This movie is anything but lazy. Jim Carrey, like no actor before him, pulls out all the stops as Ace Ventura. Is he milking things? Oh sure. He's milking things like Paganini milked the violin, or like Michelangelo milked the Sistine Chapel. He's inventing a manic persona so complete and fully realized, that it transcends standard comedy and achieves something mystical and poetic and truthful. And that's how it keeps from being annoying.

This film is too casually dismissed because it looks like a terrible movie. I was hesitant to watch it. But maybe, years and years from now, it will achieve the kind of subversive cult-film status it deserves.