The Mask

Directed by	Chuck Russell
Produced by	Bob Engelman
Screenplay by	Mike Werb
Story by	Michael Fallon Mark Verheiden
Based on	The Mask by Dark Horse Comics
Starring	Jim Carrey Peter Riegert Peter Greene Amy Yasbeck Richard Jeni Cameron Diaz
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Editing by	Arthur Coburn
Studio	New Line Cinema Dark Horse Entertainment
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	July 29, 1994
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$351,583,407

The Mask is a 1994 American fantasy-comedy film^[1] based on a series of comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. This film was directed by Chuck Russell, and produced by Dark Horse Entertainment and New Line Cinema, and originally released to movie theatres on July 29, 1994. The film stars Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss, a man who finds the Mask of Loki that turns him into The Mask, a trickster uninhibited by anything, including physical reality. The film's supporting cast includes Peter Greene as mafia officer Dorian Tyrell, Amy Yasbeck as a newspaper reporter, Peter Riegert and Jim Doughan as two police detectives, Richard Jeni as Stanley's friend, Orestes Matacena as nightclub owner and mafia boss Niko, Ben Stein as a psychologist, and Cameron Diaz in her feature film debut as Stanley's love interest Tina Carlyle.
The movie was among the top ten moneymakers of its year, cemented Carrey's reputation as one of the dominant comedic actors of the era, and established Diaz as a major starlet immediately, who would go on to have a long career as a leading lady. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Forrest Gump.

Plot

Shy and luckless clerk Stanley Ipkiss works at an Edge City bank. He is bullied by nearly everyone he is around including his boss Mr. Dickey and his land-lady Mrs. Peenman. His only friends are his Jack Russell Terrier Milo and his co-worker Charlie Schumaker. Meanwhile, gangster Dorian Tyrell operates a nightclub called the Coco Bongo while plotting to overthrow his boss Niko. Tyrell sends his singer girlfriend Tina Carlyle into Stanley's bank to record its layout, in preparation to rob the bank.
Stanley is attracted to Tina, and she seems to reciprocate. After being denied entrance to the Coco Bongo, near the city's harbor, he finds a mysterious wooden mask. Placing it on his face transforms him into a zoot-suited, green-faced, bizarre trickster known as the Mask, who is able to act with immense impunity. The transformed Stanley enacts revenge on some of Stanley's tormentors, including the auto mechanics who ripped him off the night before, and scares a street gang that attempts to rob him by turning a balloon into a Tommy gun.
The next morning, Stanley encounters detective Lieutenant Kellaway and newspaper reporter Peggy Brandt investigating the Mask's activity. To attend Tina's performance and, despite being sought by the police, he again becomes the Mask in order to steal money targeted by Tyrell. At the Coco Bongo, the Mask dances exuberantly with Tina, after which he carried in his arms, smiled and then kisses her in a sexy way. Following a confrontation with Tyrell, the Mask flees, leaving behind a scrap of cloth belonging to himself.
Kellaway accuses Stanley of the bank-robbery, but he escapes trouble and later consults an expert on masks named Arthur Neuman, who tells him that the object is a depiction of Loki, the Norse god of darkness and mischief. Despite this, Stanley arranges for Tina to meet the Mask at the local Landfill Park. The meeting is proceeding as planned when Lt. Kellaway attempts to arrest him. The Mask tricks a large group of Edge City police officers into joining him in a mass-performance of the Desi Arnaz song Cuban Pete. Stanley flees with Peggy, but he is betrayed to Tyrell for a $50,000 bounty. Tyrell tries on the mask and becomes a malevolent green-faced being. Forced to reveal the location of the stolen money, Stanley is kept hostage in one of the mob's cars while Tyrell's henchmen reclaim the money. Stanley is later given to Kellaway along with a rubber green mask to be detained.
When Tina visits Stanley in his cell, he urges her to flee the city. Tina thanks Stanley for treating her with respect and tells him that she knew that he was the Mask all along. She attempts to leave the city, but is captured by Orlando and Tyrell and taken to a charity ball hosted by Niko and attended by the city's elite, including the city's mayor Mitchell Tilton. Upon arrival, the masked Tyrell kills Niko, and prepares to destroy both the club and Tina. Milo helps Stanley escape prison, and they, bringing Kellaway as a cover and hostage, go to stop Tyrell.
After the brief, initial success of securing the assistance of Charlie, Stanley is spotted by Orlando and captured. Tina tricks Tyrell into taking off the mask, which is recovered and donned by Milo, turning the dog into a cartoonish pitbull who defeats Tyrell's men, while Stanley fights Tyrell. Stanley then recovers the mask and uses its abilities to save Tina by swallowing Tyrell's bomb and flushing Tyrell down the drain of the club's ornamental fountain. The police arrive and arrest Tyrell's remaining henchmen while Kellaway arrests Stanley again, then Tilton announces to everyone that Tyrell was The Mask the whole time, as a way for Kellaway to let Stanley go. Tilton tells Stanley that he is a hero, and thanks him for saving lives. He goes on to say that he needs to have a meeting with Kellaway in his office the next morning, and all charges against Stanley are dropped.
As the sun rises the following day, Stanley, Tina, Milo, and Charlie take the mask back down to the harbor, where Tina throws it into the water and she and Stanley begin to kiss before Stanely can say in the mask's voice, "Smoking." and kiss again. Charlie attempts to retrieve the mask for himself, only to find Milo swimming away with it.

Reception

The film was a box-office success, grossing $119 million domestically and over $350 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest grossing superhero movie at that time, behind Batman. Even though it had been out-grossed by several superhero movies throughout the years, it remains immensely popular, especially among children. Critics also approved of the film, including Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, noting Jim Carrey for his "joyful performance."^[2] The Mask is one of three films featuring Carrey (the others being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber) released in 1994 that helped launch the actor to superstardom, though The Mask was the most successful of these three films both critically and commercially. The film is also notable for immediately establishing Diaz - previously a complete unknown - as a major star in Hollywood as well.
The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 67th Academy Awards, but lost to Forrest Gump. In addition, Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe. Conversely, he was also nominated for a Razzie Award for "Worst New Star". It currently holds a 75% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a consensus stating "It misses perhaps as often as it hits, but Carrey's manic bombast, Diaz's blowsy appeal, and the film's overall cartoony bombast keep The Mask afloat."
On the television program Siskel & Ebert, the critics gave the film "two thumbs up" and the movie went on their list of "Best of 1994".
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 56, indicating "mixed or average reviews" based on 12 reviews.

Home video

The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc (and later on DVD) by New Line Home Video. The VHS version included an interview between Jim Carrey and Space Ghost, as a promotion for their corporate sibling Cartoon Network's Space Ghost Coast to Coast after the film. It also had a trailer for Jim Carrey's then-upcoming film, Dumb and Dumber, and ads for the soundtrack to the film, and for what was then branded as Betty Crocker Pop Secret. It was later released Blu-ray Disc on December 9, 2008.^[5] It has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is encoded in 1080p/VC-1. Its audio is a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD encoded at a 16/48 kHz bit and sample rate. Special features include additional scenes, production details and two commentary tracks, one by director Chuck Russell and the other by the rest of the production crew.

Sequels

Not long after the release of The Mask, it was announced in Nintendo Power that Carrey would be returning in a sequel called The Mask II. The magazine held a contest, with the winner being an extra in the film, but, due to Jim Carrey declining to reprise his role, the project never came to fruition. In a 1995 Barbara Walters Special, Carrey revealed that he was offered what would be a record-setting sum of $10 million to star in The Mask II, but turned it down, because his experiences on Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls convinced him that reprising a character he'd previously played offered him no challenges as an actor.
After this, an animated series was released and ran for three seasons. Some ideas for The Mask II made it into the animated series.
An unrelated sequel, Son of the Mask, was released in theaters in February 2005. The sequel was a box-office bomb and was universally panned by critics. It received 8 nominations at the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Remake or Sequel, Worst Actor (Jamie Kennedy), Worst Sequel, Worst Director (Lawrence Guterman), and Worst Couple (Jamie Kennedy and anyone starring with him).