The Mask on DVD (1994)

A real cartoon

Gordon Walker from Northern Ireland , 04/03/2004

Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey) is a much put-upon functionary in a bank. His best friend berates him for being too nice, girls walk over him and his boss bullies him. The only sign of hope is when Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz) walks into the bank and asks for his help setting up an account. Sadly she is only there because her boyfriend it planning to rob the place.

After yet more humiliation Stanley accidentally discovers an ancient mask whose power transforms him into a kind of human-cartoon hybrid. Capable of every swirling, flying, bouncing, stretching move ever performed by the denizens of a Warner Brothers cartoon and able to whip props and costume changes out of thin air with more panache than Bugs Bunny, Ipkiss becomes an irrepressible engine of madcap romance and comic retribution - the Mask.

The plot follows Stanley's twin entanglements with Tina and her vicious boyfriend Dorian Tyrell but these are merely a framework to show off the insanity of Carrey's Mask. Whether he's pulling a full size sledgehammer out of his trouser pocket to smash a fleeing alarm clock, or fashioning a working tommy gun out of modelling balloons it is the Mask and his gags that are the thing. Plot serves about the same duty here as it would in the cartoons it is based on - it's just a mechanism for getting the characters from set piece to set piece.

And it works. Jim Carrey was born to be a cartoon and in The Mask he comes closer than anyone else has to capturing the flexible insanity of toonland in a live action film, displacing the only other real contender, Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But where Hoskins aped cartoon antics at one point, Carrey truly inhabits them. The well pitched special effects seem only to enhance his already plastic performance.

Cameron Diaz's debut performance requires little more of her than to look gorgeous and respond to Carrey. The former she does effortlessly, the latter seems a little stretched at times. Peter Greene as Dorian Tyrell is an effective villan providing the necessary element of threat without unbalancing the necessary silliness of the story.

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P-A-R-T- Why?

Huxley from Hampshire , 14/11/2003

Coz I gotta!! This film is the origin of some of the greatest quotes since Casablanca. Jim Carey is outstanding in the rubber faced role he was born to play. The green faced, yellow suited man-diva is the antithesis to Carey's shy, retiring character as he starts the film. All hell is released with the discovery one night of a strange wooden mask down by the river...

This film blends animation impeccably with real life, building on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"'s earlier success in the area, and with a snappy script and fantastic soundtrack (as well as Cameron Diaz in 'that' dress), what more could you want?

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kid stuff

A customer from darlington England , 19/05/2007

Definitely not for grown-ups.

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The Mask

A customer from Glasgow, Scotland , 07/07/2004

Seen this film years ago and just watched it again. I had forgotten just how funny this film is. I think everyone who found it funny the first time will love it all over again and more.

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A customer from MILTON KEYNES , 18/10/2004

Got this classic out for my 7 year old son, he loved as i did the first time round .

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What a great film

A customer from UK , 20/05/2005

You read the summary and you think... sounds a bit cheesy. FOR GOODNESS' SAKE! DON'T! This film is a treat! Watch it now! YOu wont regret it. Nobody has submitted a bad review yet! They can't be wrong.

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