Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (film)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994
wacky comedy movie, directed by Tom Shadyac. It stars Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox,
Tone Loc, Sean Young, among others. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino also
portrays himself in a major role.
Cast
Jim Carrey - Ace Ventura
Courteney
Cox Arquette - Melissa Robinson
Sean Young - Lois Einhorn
Dan Marino -
Himself
Troy Evans - Roger Podacter
Udo Kier - Ronald Camp
Raynor
Scheine - Woodstock
Tone Loc - Emilio
Gary Munch - Director
Tiny Ron
- Roc
Scott Mitchell - Miami Dolphins' Owner
Florence Mistrot - Neighbor
John Archie - Reporter #3
Don Shula - Himself
Bill Zuckert - Mr. Finkle
Noble Willingham - Riddle
Chris Barnes - Himself
Judy Clayton - Martha
Maxx
Randall "Tex" Cobb - Himself
Antoni Coroner - Reporter
#1
John Capodice - Aguado
Frank Adonis - Vinnie
Terry Miller - Assistant
Director
Mark Margolis - Mr. Shickadance
David Margulies - Doctor
Alice
Drummond - Mrs. Finkle
Will Knickerbocker- Manager
Rebecca Ferratti -
Sexy Woman
Nosey (Miami Seaquarim, Florida) - Snowflake the dolphin
Plot
Ace,
disguised as a delivery man, steals a kidnapped dog from its brusque, unhygenic,
violent captor and restores it to its owner, a gorgeous woman who proceeds to
seduce Ace in lieu of monetary payment.
Ace himself lives in an apartment, which he retains by deceiving his landlord. Many animals of several species live with Ace, who shares an affinity with them. Because the landlord forbids pets, Ace conceals them, going to great lengths to do so.
The Miami Dolphins team's owner threatens to cancel the coming games if the suddenly absent mascot Snowflake is not found. Agent Melissa Robinson (Courteney Cox) contacts Ace, seeking help. Ace meets Melissa, who explains that Snowflake is a rare bottlenose dolphin who is trained to perform football-themed tricks. The team is very superstitious, and may not win the Super Bowl unless Snowflake is returned; therefore the discovery of Snowflake's location is imperative. After meeting coach Roger and scaring off reporters, Ace enters the dolphin tank and finds his first clue: a rare orange cut amber.
At the police station, Ace learns from his friend in the police force, Emilio, that Sergeant Aguado is working on the Snowflake case. The fearsome Lt. Lois Einhorn (Sean Young) storms in, warning Ace to avoid the Snowflake case altogether.
Ace visits his ecologist friend Woodstock to find out who would have enough money to purchase equipment used to capture and hold a dolphin. The prime suspect is a billionaire Ronald Camp, who is throwing a lavish party. Ace, accompanied by Melissa, attends the party.
Ace, searching, finds a large tank full of water, but discovers that it contains a shark. On his way out of the party (after falling in the tank), he eyes a ring on Camp's finger and discovers it has stones in it similar to the one he found in the tank. The stone, a rare trianglar-shaped amber piece, had fallen from a 1984 AFC Championship Ring. Camp wore an identical ring that night, but it was not missing a stone. Ace, trying to find whose ring is missing a stone, eliminates all the players known to him.
Melissa and Ace learn that coach Roger Podacter is dead. The police believe it to be a case of suicide. Ace disproves this by taking the information that Podacter's neighbor heard a scream, supposedly from Podacter's fall from his balcony, and the fact that the sliding door leading to the balcony was closed when the apartment manager entered; because the door is made from double-paned, soundproof glass, Podacter's neighbor could not have heard the scream if Podacter had committed suicide and closed the door himself. Instead, he was thrown off the balcony, whereas the killer closed the door on the way out. Ace humiliates Einhorn with this revelation and is driven away as a result.
While trying to figure out how Podacter's death is connected to Snowflake, Ace learns of a Dolphins' player named Ray Finkle, whom Ace has not investigated. Melissa explains that Ray Finkle was a star kicker who was added to the team after the photograph was taken that Ace has used as a reference. Finkle had missed the potential game-winning field goal kick at the end of the Super Bowl game that year, losing to the San Francisco 49ers. After the season, Finkle received an AFC Championship ring; however his contract was not renewed.
Ace drives down to Finkle's hometown to meet the football player's parents at their home, which is defaced with anti-Finkle graffiti. Finkle's mother is senile, and his father is a suspicious, shotgun-wielding old man who confides to Ace that his son was put into a mental institution after his career ended. Finkle's room contains a hate shrine to player Dan Marino, consisting of cardboard stand-ins and photos of the football star, the words "DIE DAN DIE" scrawled in red, and knives sticking out of Marino's face. A film projector in the middle of the room plays recorded footage of the field goal that Finkle missed. Finkle blames Marino for the incident, because he was holding the football inaccurately when Finkle kicked it. Ace realizes that Dan Marino is probably about to be kidnapped and alerts Melissa to send help, but is unable to prevent the kidnapping.
Ace returns to Miami and lays out Finkle's motive to Lt. Einhorn. The hypothesis is that Finkle kidnapped Snowflake was because the dolphin was assigned Finkle's jersey number and taught how to kick a field goal, which Finkle took as an insult. In light of this evidence, Einhorn suddenly starts attempting to seduce Ace; Ace turns her down after feeling something "digging into" his hip. He assumes it to be Einhorn's gun.
Searching for Ray Finkle, Ace enters Shady Acres, the mental hospital in Tampa from which Finkle escaped. Ace searches the storage room and finds a box of Finkle's belongings. Looking through it, he finds a newspaper article stating that Lois Einhorn was a missing hiker whose body was never recovered. Ace immediately calls Emilio, who looks through Einhorn's desk, finding evidence that points to Einhorn as Coach Podacter's killer. While trying to determine how Finkle and Einhorn were connected, Ace's dog puts his head down on a picture of Finkle, whereupon the dog's hair alters the image of Finkle's head, so that he looks like a woman. Looking at it, Ace realizes that Finkle had sex reassignment surgery to pose as Lois Einhorn. Now knowing that he was seduced by a man, Ace is shellshocked; he therefore vomits, cleans his mouth via exaggerated methods, burns the clothes he wore during the homosexual encounter, and continues to purge himself until he is exhausted.
Ace follows Einhorn to a warehouse by the docks. He finds Dan Marino tied up, but is himself caught by Einhorn. When the cops arrive to arrest Ace (on Einhorn's orders), Melissa and Emilio stop them. Ace explains Finkle's motive and that Einhorn is actually Finkle. No one, believes him; therefore Ace attempts to find proof by attempting to remove the lieutenant's hair thinking it was a wig, then ripping off her blouse and skirt to show that she had no breasts and had his genitalia removed, failing to prove either. On a cue from Marino, Ace turns Einhorn around and reveals that Einhorn/Finkle had tucked his genitals between his legs. The assembled squad are disgusted. Einhorn makes one last attempt to kill Ace, but is thwarted and exposed as the owner of the incomplete ring.
Marino is returned to the team in time for the Super Bowl, as is Snowflake. While sharing a tender moment with Melissa at the game, Ace sees an albino pigeon, whom he had been chartered to find, and tries to catch it. The Philadelphia Eagles' mascot scares the bird away, enraging Ace. The audience takes notice and the announcer displays Ace on the JumboTron, reading aloud Ace's dedication and love for "all animals" while Ace is punching the headpiece of the Eagles' mascot. Ace, seeing the camera, strikes a pose.
Trivia
scene
in the movie where Spike is jumping around Ace's apartment was used as the original
Rally Monkey for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2000. As its popularity
grew, Angel Stadium officials got a similar capuchin monkey for new Rally Monkey
footage. Spike also appears in the sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and
in the cartoon series. The monkey also has a habit of popping into other Carrey
films, for instance, the monkey that comes out of the hoodlum's buttocks in Bruce
Almighty is the same species and breed as Spike.
The idea for the "Ray
Finkle" character missing a game-winning field goal in the Super Bowl was
inspired by Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood who actually missed a 47-yard game
winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV.[1] In the 1984 season the Miami Dolphins
actually played in Super Bowl XIX with Dan Marino as their quarterback but they
were defeated in a 38–16 rout by the San Francisco 49ers.
Actual members
(at the time) of the Miami Dolphins appear during the Isotoner commercial scene,
including quarterback Scott Mitchell. The scene features the same gag used in
the real life commercials where Marino's teammates (in uniform) pick him up and
carry him away.
Miami Dolphins kicker Pete Stoyanovich plays the role of Einhorn/Finkle's
"kicking" double and does the scene (in a dress, wearing flat dress
shoes instead of high heels) where Einhorn/Finkle kicks the football through the
hole in the roof.
Uwe von Schamann is the player depicted as Ray Finkle in
Finkle's parents' game film. While with the Miami Dolphins, he was a member of
two Super Bowl teams and was perfect in both of them, not missing an extra point
or a field goal in each one. The footage of the missed kick was authentic. The
game used was Super Bowl XIX when the Dolphins lost to the 49ers.
Ace Ventura's
detective character is a parody of Clint Eastwood's character Dirty Harry Callahan
in the Dirty Harry movies. Carrey, who has appeared in two of Clint Eastwood's
movies, spoofed some of Dirty Harry's traits such as his wavy hairdo, sporty sunglasses,
large 1970's sedan, and occasional tough-guy attitude.
Jim Carrey opted to
put his favorite band, Cannibal Corpse, into the movie; they appear in the scene
where Ace goes to meet Woodstock, on stage playing the song "Hammer Smashed
Face". However, due to the explicit lyrics in the song, television captions
shows then-lead singer Chris Barnes singing "grr!" over and over. The
band is also incorrectly listed in the credits as "Cannibal Corpses",
and that they are a "thrasher band".
In a deleted scene, Jim Carrey
is onstage with Cannibal Corpse singing Hammer Smashed Face instead of Chris Barnes.
When Ace deduces that the murderer is a woman who used to be a man, the song
"Crying Game" sung by Boy George begins to play.
The name of the
mental institution in the film "Shady Acres" is a play on director Tom
Shadyac's surname.
In the syndication version, Aguado asks how Ace is going
to solve the murder of a bug he squashed. Ace replies that the motive behind the
murder is because the killer (Aguado) saw the size of the bug's "gerkin"
("dick" in the real movie) and became jealous. They also cut out Ace's
comment about porking Aguado's wife. There is another scene where Ace goes to
a bar in Collier County. Any major curses were censored or toned down.
Ace's
catchphrase, "Alrighty then!" was nominated for a position on AFI's
100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes but failed to appear on the final list.
Background
The
story follows the adventures of Ace Ventura, an eccentric detective who specializes
in cases involving pet animals, in his search for "Snowflake", the missing
mascot of the Miami Dolphins. Ace is easily identified by not only his bright
Hawaiian shirts but also his hairdo and sunglasses which were both inspired by
the Dirty Harry Callahan character from actor Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies.
This film and Carrey's involvement with the TV comedy show In Living Color are said to have helped Jim Carrey establish himself as one of the highest paid comedic talents in Hollywood. This is the first of three Jim Carrey–Tom Shadyac collaborations; others following it would be Liar, Liar, and Bruce Almighty.
The film inspired
a successful sequel Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and a spin-off Ace Ventura:
Pet Detective cartoon series on CBS. A third film, Ace Ventura, Jr., is currently
being planned.
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