Pop Culture Movies and More: The Mask (1994)

Stanley Ipkiss is a timid bank clerk, who is very gentle and unable to handle confrontations. After enduring one of his worst days, he discovers a plain mask but little did he know it wasn't an ordinary mask. This was a magical mask containing the spirit of Loki, the Norse god of mischief. When Ipkiss gets home he tries it on and it transforms him into his inner self as a cartoon wild man. He goes on to do some crazy things and moves and acts very much like a cartoon character. While wearing the mask, Ipkiss becomes a playboy, charming, exuding and confident person, which gains the attention of local nightclub singer Tina Carlyle, who Ipkiss likes but was unable to tell her how he felt. The mask, however, influenced him into robbing a bank, which got him unwanted attention from an angry junior crime lord, Dorian Tyrell, whose goons were blamed for the theft. Ipkiss may be winning over Tina but is also getting attention from the police and crime lords. The Mask is one of Jim Carrey's best films, which gave me so many laughs and entertained me to the fullest, especially with its incredible quick-delivery humour. I thoroughly enjoy a lot of Carry's films some notable being, the Ace Ventura films, Liar Liar (1997) and The Truman Show (1998). He gives every performance his all with his over-the-top movement/facial expressions and quick energetic movements. It really is something to behold and it feels like this role was made for him. Literally, I mean it felt like the film was a great way for him to show off all his acting skills and wacky performances. The idea of the actual mask is very intriguing being a creation of the Norse God of mischief, Loki and left me wanting to know more. With Ipkiss' love for cartoons, it amplified this to the extreme creating him into a character similar to what he had watched and many jokes involve his cartoonish behaviour. I love lots of the jokes and scenes in this movie, with my favourite having to be the musical moment, the Cuban Pete scene. It is the funniest part of the whole film for me and it's just a great song in general. The delivery and dance choreography were superb, from all involved in the scene where Ipkiss uses his powers to make the cops surrounding him begin to sing and dance. The scene alone had me grinning from start to finish and if you don't check out this film then just check out the Cuban Pete song section. I just loved it and most of all because it came out of nowhere. As well as being very humour oriented, the film actually has a decent story and goes on to produce some shocking reveals too, which caught me off guard, leading to an interesting turnabout. The villains are also really menacing like Dorian, a mafia officer, who is a formidable opponent standing in the way between Ipkiss and Tina. He is psychopathic, manipulative, and arrogant and Stanley's arch-nemesis. When he later gets his hand on the mask he uses it to become more powerful, which made him more unstoppable thanks to its amplification of his evil ways. All the actors do a fabulous job, especially under the circumstances of CGI being used in scenes, they all did a great job in making you believe they could be seeing and interacting with it. Granted not all of it holds up but you can easily overlook it for the great comedy and story it delivers. Overall, with iconic one-liners like: ‘Ssssmokin'!' to Jim Carry's excellent performance and the great musical numbers this film offers, it is simply a great comedy cult classic. This is a very enjoyable movie that offers a lot with its comedic scenes, phenomenal music, hilarious acting from Jim Carrey and even a bit of a love story. I totally enjoyed this film and would recommend it to all fans of Carrey.