The Mask also stands as one of the very first films to be adapted from a Dark Horse Comics series, an adaptation that initially was meant (believe it or not) to replace New Line's Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which was, by 1994, becoming pretty stale. While there are certainly elements of menace and violence in The Mask, it quickly became obvious that a more comic approach was needed to completely capitalize on the lunacy donning the mask engendered, and when Carrey came aboard, the film was solidly placed in a comedy format. The Mask, for those two or three of you who have managed not to see it in all or part, revolves around decent but ineffective shlub Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), a bank clerk who means well but can't ever get much accomplished. Enter the mask, a green carved disguise that contains the disembodied spirit of Loki, the Norse God of mischief (this is made explicitly clear in a jettisoned prologue, which is contained as an extra on the Blu-ray). When Stanley dons the mask, he becomes The Mask (a moniker the original comic book didn't have, at least to begin with), a totally lunatic character who manages to personify the Tex Avery insanity that Ipkiss loves to watch during long evenings home with only his cute Jack Russell Terrier, Milo, to keep him company.

Added into this mix are Cameron Diaz (in her film debut) as a gangster's moll named Tina who initially meets Stanley while she's casing his bank for a future holdup. He of course falls for her, but is unable to articulate his feelings to her, something his alter-ego of The Mask obviously has little trouble doing. The problem is The Mask tends to over-articulate everything, frequently in silly foreign accents and impersonations of everyone from Clint Eastwood to Clark Gable. The Mask's growing involvement with Tina sets him up as a nemesis for the gangsters of Edge City, the semi-mythical, methane infused metropolis where The Mask takes place.

It's all patently silly, but for a film this purposely cartoon-like, the plot elements actually work surprisingly well. What everything about The Mask is set up to accomplish, quite obviously, is to unleash Jim Carrey's frenzied riffs and improvisatory mayhem, something he gets to do with reckless abandon throughout the film. The film augments the physical buffoonery and verbal logistics with some delicious Avery-esque sight gags, courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic. Some of these effects are culled directly from various Avery cartoons, as is mentioned explicitly in the commentaries and extras offered on this BD. You therefore get The Mask turning into a lecherous wolf when he sees Tina performing her nightclub act, or him turning into rubber to escape various bullets heading his way. It's a delightful blend of fantasy and semi-reality that gives The Mask a very appealing joie de vivre for most of the time.

Though it was visually innovative (indeed ground breaking) in its day, which perhaps helped to plaster over some of its deficiencies, The Mask has strangely not aged entirely well, and some of the seams show a bit more than you would expect some 15 years after its release. The film drags on a just a little too long for its own good, with an overdone late Act II spilling into a strangely lame Act III and climax. By the time The Mask hypnotizes an entire police force into performing a conga line version of Desi Arnaz's "Cuban Pete," it's a case of been-there done-that which fails to find its comedic outrageousness solidly enough. The final showdown between Ipkiss and Tina's gangster boyfriend, who has co-opted the mask for his own nefarious ends, is lackluster and actually pretty unfunny at times, save for the great gag involving Milo, who stumbles into putting on the mask himself.

Carrey has always been an odd sort of movie star, redolent somewhat of Jerry Lewis in his more frenzied performances (and in fact The Mask owes quite a bit to Lewis' own Jekyll and Hyde film, The Nutty Professor). It's to director Chuck Russell's credit that he manages to walk a fine line between letting Carrey have his improvisatory way at various moments while also reigning in Carrey's evidently uncontrollable urge to constantly mug. Carrey seems oddly ill at ease in his own skin at times when he's forced to just sit there, but Russell actually manages to coax several nice moments of underplaying from his star. Diaz is a delight in her first film role, nicely handling both the femme fatale aspects of Tina as well as her underlying vulnerability. Tina could have come off as a petulant bitch quite easily, but Diaz manages to make her likable from the get-go. And, of course, she's easy on the eyes, especially in the great establishing long tracking shot Russell uses to introduce her (or at least her legs). (Note also Russell's funny use of the Hitchcock Vertigo technique of zooming while tracking back in this same sequence). Ben Stein is also hilarious in a brief cameo as a mask expert who attempts to help Ipkiss sort out what Stein's character assumes is a nervous breakdown.

If The Mask isn't quite as amusing as it was on its initial release, it nonetheless provides the same sort of live-action cartoon mayhem that its sort-of kin Who Framed Roger Rabbit? does at times. The adapters of The Mask obviously love Avery's patented form of animated insanity and they manage for the most part to imbue their film with the same sort of topsy-turvy logic that defines most of Tex's great work. This is the first great benchmark of Carrey's own peculiar kind of film performance madness (much more so than Ace Ventura in my opinion), and while a little creaky now a decade and a half in, still provides plenty of guffaws while offering some still quite impressive visual effects.

The Blu-ray

Video:
The Mask has always been a curiously ugly looking film, with garish colors and an at times extremely soft image. It was this way in the theaters, and continued to be in its many incarnations on home video. This 1080p VC-1 1.85:1 transfer tones down the red-orange tint of the previous two DVD releases, while punching up sharpness and saturation a bit. Contrast is different, which is not to say better or worse, this time out, with a subtly more conservative difference between brights and darks. There's also a glossy look that argues for some DNR, but I personally didn't find it that distracting. If you've had previous versions of The Mask on DVD, you're probably going to like this quite a bit. If you're looking for reference quality image, you're going to be disappointed.

Sound:
Luckily the True HD 5.1 audio track is considerably better, though ambient channel use is pretty anemic at times. You get the most audio bang for your buck in the more manic cartoony sequences, when there's a good use of crazy sound effects which bounce around the surround channels nicely. Otherwise you have a good, if not incredible, front-heavy mix that supports dialogue superbly. Both the standard DD 5.1 mixes in English and German are excellent, if not quite at the fidelity level of the True HD mix. Subtitles are available in German and English.

Extras:
All of the extras from the 2005 Special Edition DVD have been ported over to this BD. Those include two good commentaries, one by Russell alone, the other with Russell and various production crew, an almost half hour retrospective featurette called "Return to Edge City," as well as another shorter piece on the influence of Tex Avery on The Mask. Down the quality chain a bit are another short piece on "Introducing Cameron Diaz" and a featurette on the dog training involved in making "Milo" does his tricks in the film. Two deleted scenes are actually pretty fun, including the aforementioned prologue and another scene which was inexplicably cut but which really should have been included (I won't spoil details for those of you who don't know about it). Both of these have an optional director commentary on them.

Final Thoughts:
The Mask is still a lot of fun, if not quite as breathtaking as it seemed at the dawn of the CGI age in 1994. Carrey is suitably manic when he dons the mask, and manages to restrain himself (if only slightly at times) as mild-mannered Stanley Ipkiss. Diaz is a delight and director Chuck Russell manages to craft a "real life" Tex Avery cartoon that will delight any lovers of the vintage shorts. Recommended.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet