Son of the Mask

Cast: Jamie Kennedy, Alan Cumming, Traylor Howard and Steven Wright

Director: Lawrence Guterman

Release Date: 2005

Running Time: 1hr 34 minutes

Genre: Family/Comedy

Rating: PG

Format: Amazon Prime UK

Synopsis:

Aspiring cartoon artist Tim Avery finds himself in a pickle when his dog stumbles across the mask of Loki. However after conceiving a baby born of the mask, Tim discovers that raising a child can be a little bit challenging.

Jim Carrey bounced onto our screens back in 1994 with the smash hit movie "The Mask" directed by Chuck Russell. After the films initial success there were talks about a sequel being made, however when Carey refused the idea, a sequel was scrapped. This story is not to be mistaken for a sequel, it was originally made as an screenplay titled "Baby Formula" that was thought to have been inspired by "Rosemary's Baby" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and intended more for an adult audience. In the original film, we realise that the mask is in fact the mask belonging to the God of mischief Loki, brother of Thor and son of Odin.

One afternoon, Tim's Jack Russell Otis stumbles across a mask floating in a nearby river. Delivering it to his owner, with Halloween just around the corner, Tim decides to use the mask as part of his costume, turning him into a multicoloured clown. After his wife Tonya gives birth to their son, Tim is left alone with him whilst his wife heads to New York on a business trip, learning that looking after a child is a lot more challenging than he first anticipated. Jim Carrey had every right to turn down the sequel. Terribly directed by Lawrence Guterman, it's unsure what he was actually hoping to show his audience after production finished?

Not only is the storyline incredibly messy, but it was poorly executed too. Lawrence Guterman desperately tried to take all of the wonderful attributes from the first film and incorporate them into this storyline, needless to say he failed miserably. Although it has a very nice cartoonish feel to it, it's pretty obvious that it's inspiration came from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", unfortunately it leaves no room for originality. You'd be lucky, if for the most part of the film you actually understand what is meant to be going on.  Unfortunately due to the storyline being so messy, the creativity that was placed in the production design goes completely unmissed. Jamie Kennedy's performance is almost as awful as the storyline. Alan Cumming is the only actor who actually has the potential to make the film brilliant.

A film that really had the potential to be something great, however due to poor choices made in early production, it turned out to an embarrassing mess.

1/5 stars