Amazing animation, clever dialogue, and star-making performances make 'The Mask' a classic.
Before rubber-faced comic actor Jim Carrey was a household name and Cameron Diaz became the star of movies such as There’s Something About Mary, Charlie’s Angels, In Her Shoes, and Gangs of New York, they starred in this fresh experimental comedy about Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), a timid bank clerk who unleashes his inner desires by wearing a magic mask.
About The Mask
- The animation in The Mask, presented in the style of Tex Avery cartoons, is provided by Industrial Light & Magic. It includes Tasmanian Devil-style twirls, balloon creations coming to life, bodies expanding, contracting, stretching, and flattening on demand, and other virtually seamless eye-popping, jaw-dropping antics.
- Director Charles (Chuck) Russell, who wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and wrote and produced Dreamscape, brings this same creepy sensibility to the set of The Mask. Although billed as a romantic comedy, the animated violence is just as lethal as in Russell’s other films. The Mask crosses over into various genres – romance, comedy, animation, horror – and succeeds at them all.
- Carrey’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective had just arrived in theaters shortly before The Mask was released. The combination of the two films (a silly comedy and a dark romantic comedy) established him as a major comic force.
- Although in Ace Ventura, he works exclusively with animals, in The Mask, his best friend is his dog Milo, a Jack Russell terrier. Milo’s job as best friend involves helping Stanley break out of jail and getting the bad guy, Tina’s thug boyfriend (Peter Greene), who provides the third corner of this love triangle.
- Based on the Dark Horse comic character “The Mask,” this film (released in 2005 on a special New Line Platinum Series DVD) captures the dark themes of the comic, in addition to adhering to the look, feel, and color of a surreal world just beyond the edge of the everyday.
About the Actors in The Mask
- Although it launched her career, then 19-year-old model Cameron Diaz wasn’t really interested in the role of the sexy lounge singer Tina Carlyle at first. Right after her first audition, she left for Paris and almost didn’t come back when the production team from New Line Cinema wanted to see her again.
- Two bumbling policemen (Peter Riegert and Jim Doughan) always seem to be one step behind Stanley, who’s fairly bumbling himself.
- The song and dance numbers (enhanced by computer generated images) are fun, flashy, and highly entertaining. Despite grotesque makeup, loud costumes, and a set of enormous false teeth, Carrey still manages to charm.
- Actors Richard Jeni and Joely Fisher plays supporting roles as scheming co-workers at Stanley’s bank, and Amy Yasbeck portrays a newspaper advice columnist looking for her big break as a reporter.
- The 2005 DVD release of The Mask includes great bonus features such as deleted scenes, four short documentaries, audio commentaries with the director, co-founder of New Line Cinema, screenwriter, executive producer, animation supervisor, and cinematographer.
The Mask is a must-see darkly romantic comedy classic that earned a PG-13 rating in 1994 for its stylized violence.
The copyright of the article 10 Reasons to Love The Mask in Romantic Comedy Films is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish 10 Reasons to Love The Mask in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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