Son of the Mask

Review by Clint Morris

"This is the crappiest piece of crap in crap town," utters Jamie Kennedy's character as he picks up that familiar mask a few minutes into the movie - or was that merely him muttering his disgust at the drivel he was starring in under his breath, and the boom accidentally picking it up?

If anything, 1994's The Mask was merely something concocted to showcase the emerging talents of a pre-billionaire Jim Carrey.

What it lacked in plot - it had less of it than someone living in a high-rise flat has outside plants - it more than made up for in dazzling special effects.

The special effects are back in the sequel, but unfortunately, Carrey isn't. And like taking the key talent from a rock band, it's all too obvious that this is as weak an act as you can get.

Poor-man's Carrey, Jamie Kennedy, plays Tim Avery, a struggling cartoonist who discovers the vintage mask - puts it on, goes crazy (cue the nauseating ten minute long musical sequence and block your ears!) and returns home to conceive a baby with his wife. Yes, baby's born, it finds the mask - and madness ensues.

Meanwhile, Alan Cumming stops by to have us instantly forget about his great track record of taste by playing the film's lacklustre villain, God of Mischief, Loki, who's out to snatch the magically endowed baby.

Besides a cameo by the unmistakable Ben Stein in the film's opening minutes, Son of the Mask bares no resemblance to the smash hit original. The first film had zest; this is as tired as a plump man after he's climbed the Empire State.

Another of these Hollywood productions that invades Australia, forces talented local actors to try on dreadful Yankee accents, and re-paints our beautiful locations as murky indecipherable backdrops that give the impression the filmmakers never left Burbank, Son of the Mask is an embarrassment for - not only those who've been forced to walk up to a cashier and pay for a ticket - anyone involved: the steady Hollywood cast, the shattered Australian support cast, those that concocted the striking but tired special effects, and the mayor of Sydney, who failed to ask for a copy of the script before allowing this slobber to slink its way in through the Harbour City.

Here's a mission: try keeping awake right throughout this thing. It's cinematic Temaze.

0.5 out of 5

Son of the Mask
Australian release: Thursday 31st of March, 2005
Cast: Jamie Kennedy, Alan Cumming, Ryan Falconer, Bob Hoskins, Traylor Howard, Ben Stein.
Director: Lawrence Guterman.
Website: Click here.

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