Son of the Mask
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Son of the Mask is a 2005 American comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman and starring Jamie Kennedy as Tim Avery, an aspiring cartoonist from Fringe City who has just had his first child born with the powers of the Mask. It is the stand-alone sequel to the successful 1994 comedy film The Mask, an adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name which starred Jim Carrey.
Contents
Summary
Aspiring cartoonist Tim Avery finds himself in a predicament when his dog Otis finds the mask of Loki. Then, after conceiving a son "born of the mask" with his wife Tonya, Tim finds out how looney child raising can be.
Why It Sucks
- Poor grasp of the first movie with plot-holes and continuity errors. For example:
- A major plot hole would be that Otis is still wearing the Mask during the day when it only works at night.
- Also misses the point of the original movie, which was to do with the concept of a "mask" as the socially acceptable "face" that people wear over their true self; by putting on Loki's mask, you take off your own. This is replaced with nothing.
- Also it contradicts the lore of the franchise, in the original comic books and one of the deleted scenes from the first movie, it implied that Odin punished Loki, took his powers and put them inside the mask, here however Loki created the mask himself to cause mischief around the world.
- Awkward acting that ruins the talents of its all-star cast. Jamie Kennedy gives a really bad performance in the film and sounds like all of his dialogue is very whiny. Also, after the reception of the movie, it caused Jamie Kennedy to hate movie critics and also almost ruined his career.
- Painfully unfunny humor, only relying on gross out humor and toilet humor.
- Horrific CGI effects. The worst examples are on Alvey and Otis (while wearing the mask), also they look worse than in the first movie.
- A stupid scene with Loki revolving around the neighbourhood to search between houses wearing different disguises to find the baby who was born by the mask. He should have simply use his powers to search for the baby.
- Extremely flawed character design for Tim Avery as The Mask with ugly make-up effects that make him look like he is wearing green paint with a bad orange wig. At least Jim Carrey felt animated enough for the Mask look to work.
- Way too many creepy close-ups and wide-angle lens at the actors.
- Several of the scenes are too frightening for children and even adults, like one scene where Otis tries to kill Alvey and when Loki pulls out the head of Ben Stein and replaces it with the fake mask.
- Pointless subplots where Tim's dog, Otis, wants to kill the baby so that he can be the center of attention and Alvey wanting to drive Tim crazy enough to send him to a psychiatric hospital.
- Alvey hates his father for no reason whatsoever.
- Forgettable characters, especially for Loki, Tim Avery, and Tonya.
- Similar to the first episode of Betty Toons, Some DVD and TV versions of this movie literally has a SPERM FERTILIZATION SCENE KEPT IN THE FILM. We're not kidding.
- The Halloween party scene at the beginning is very stupid, especially when Tim raps.
- Product placement (eg. WHEN you pause the scene where Tim tries to change Alvey's diaper you can see a Gamecube controller and in the scene where Tim is driving with his wife, you can see him playing Mario Kart: Super Circut on a Gameboy Advance SP.
- Almost killed the Mask franchise, as it made Dark Horse refuse to make any more Mask comics until 2019.
Redeeming Qualities
- The props, sets and costumes look pretty good the biggest example is Odin's outfit.
- Alan Cumming gives a good performance in this film.
- Good 2D animation that is similar to old classic cartoons.
- There's one funny moment. The moment where Tim tries to get his baby to say "Dada" but then he speaks in a very low tough man voice saying "Mother." That is the only funny moment in the entire film.
- The soundtrack is fine, like a cover of: If My Friends Could See Me Now, and What a Wonderful World.
Reception
The film received extremely negative reviews from critics and audiences. The film holds a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 2.8 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads "Overly frantic, painfully unfunny, and sorely missing the presence of Jim Carrey." Richard Roeper stated in the Ebert & Roeper review, "In the five years I've been co-hosting this show, this is the closest I've ever come to walking out halfway through the film, and now that I look back on the experience, I wish I had." Roger Ebert stated, "What we basically have here is a license for the filmmakers to do whatever they want to do with the special effects, while the plot, like Wile E. Coyote, keeps running into the wall." Roger Ebert awarded the film as his fifth worst film of 2005 and he and Richard Roeper gave the film a "Thumbs down."
Box Office
Son of the Mask opened up at #4 on its opening weekend grossing $7,511,675 at the U.S. box office. The film later made a total of domestic gross of $17,018,422. In foreign countries, the film grossed $40,534,219. Overall, the film grossed $57,552,641 worldwide against its $84 million budget, making it a box office bomb.
Awards and Nominations
The film won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel. Unlike the previous film which was more family-oriented, this film is blatantly for kids as the tone is much lighter and more comical than the first one. The film was widely considered to be a front runner for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture, but lost to Dirty Love, Jamie Kennedy was nominated for Worst Actor but lost to Rob Schneider in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Alan Cumming and Bob Hoskins were nominated for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Hayden Christensen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of The Sith. Lawrence Gutterman was nominated for Worst Director, but lost to John Mallory Asher for Dirty Love. Jamie Kennedy and anybody stuck sharing the screen with him were nominated for Worst Screen Couple, but lost to Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman in Bewitched (2005) and worst screenplay, but lost to Dirty Love.
Trivia
- Jack Black was offered the role of Tim, but turned it down.
- In 1994, a contest was run in Nintendo Power for a chance to be an extra in the cancelled project The Mask II, which was unrelated to this film. The project was cancelled, and Nintendo Power issued a public apology to the contest winner in their final issue. Years later, the winner was revealed to be Nathan Ryan Runk, from Arbutus, Maryland. The film was technically on hold, so Runk could have chosen the role or money and merchandise. Runk, who was 12 at the time, chose the money, and received $5,000, a film crew jacket (which he later lost), and several Super Nintendo games, including Pilotwings 64 on Nintendo 64. Runk later claimed it was "absolutely the right call".
- Following the release of the first film in 1994, Jim Carrey was asked to reprise his role of Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask and accepted the offer. However, he later decided not to star in the original version of The Mask II after doing Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls in 1995.
- Jamie Kennedy actually regrets starring in this film and inspired him to do a film called Heckler in response to being heckled by someone who got mad at him for his performance in the film.
- The film was in production for 10 years (from 1994 to 2004) and was reworked. It was announced too early and the original version of it was called The Mask II, but Jim Carrey decided not to do the role of the Mask.
- The main protagonist Tim Avery is named after the animator Tex Avery.
Videos
External Links
Comments
- 2000s Films
- Comedy films
- Sequel films
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture Nominees
- Box office bombs
- Fantasy films
- Worst Remake Or Sequel Winners
- Films that inspired a Roger Ebert book review title
- Sequel in name only
- Movies That Killed A Franchise
- Films That Are Aware of How Bad They Are
- Bad Movies from Good Franchises
- Live-Action Films
- New Line Cinema films
- Worst Screenplay Nominees
- Movies That Killed Careers
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