Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. It co-stars Courteney Cox, Tone Lōc, Sean Young and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino.
The film did well at the box office, grossing $107 million worldwide with a budget of $11 million. A sequel was made, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, as well as an animated series, which lasted three seasons. The film has a large cult following.
Plot
Ace Ventura, a private investigator (self-conferred as a "pet
detective") from Miami, Florida, who specializes in cases involving
animals. While his methods seem to work effectively, he does not often
get work and thus is behind on his rent and cannot repair his battered
1970s Chevrolet Monte Carlo, in addition to being a laughingstock at the
Metro-Dade Police Department.
At Joe Robbie Stadium, the mascot of the Miami Dolphins, Snowflake a
Bottlenose Dolphin, is kidnapped in the middle of the night, two weeks
before the team is due to play in the Super Bowl. Mr. Riddle, the team's
owner, knows that football players can be superstitious, and therefore
believes they will lose the Super Bowl for certain unless Snowflake is
returned. He gives his Head of Operations Roger Podacter and Chief
Publicist Melissa Robinson the deadline of Super Bowl Sunday to find
Snowflake, or they will be fired. Ace is hired onto the case, and he
meets Melissa and Podacter before entering the dolphin tank in search of
clues. Ace then searches the filter and finds his first clue: a rare
triangular-cut orange amber stone. He eventually theorizes that the
stone had fallen from a 1984 AFC Championship Ring. Ace then tries to
find out whose ring is missing a stone by tricking players into showing
their rings until his list of suspects is used up. Seemingly at a dead
end, he mopes around Melissa's house while insulting her.
Melissa and Ace then learn that Roger Podacter has fallen to his
death, and they go to the crime scene. Although Miami Police Lt. Lois
Einhorn insists it was suicide, Ace proves that it was murder. This
embarrasses Lt. Einhorn and Ace is driven away because of it. While
trying to figure out how Podacter's death is connected to Snowflake's
disappearance, Ace learns of a former 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 mid-season, whereas the photograph
that Ace has used as a reference was taken earlier that same year.
Finkle had missed the potential game-winning field goal kick at the end
of the Super Bowl XVII that year, causing the Dolphins to lose to the
San Francisco 49ers. After the season, Finkle's contract was not renewed
and his reputation was destroyed. Later that night, Ace takes Melissa
back to his apartment where they have sex, to the point of exhaustion.
The next morning Ace drives down to Finkle's hometown in Collier
County, Florida to meet the football player's parents at their home,
which is defaced with anti-Finkle graffiti written by irate fans over
the years. 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, Shady Acres, in Tampa after his career ended;
Finkle later escaped from the institution and is still at large. Mrs.
Finkle then shows Ace Ray's bedroom, which contains a shrine-like
construction declaring his hatred of Dan Marino, and while in Ray's
room, Mrs. Finkle also shows Ace footage of the missed kick from Super
Bowl XVII. During the kick, Dan Marino held the ball after it was
snapped; in the aftermath of Super Bowl XVII, Finkle blamed Marino for
the miss, claiming he held the ball "laces-in" when he should have held
it "laces-out." Ace then calls Melissa to warn her that Marino is in
danger, but Marino is kidnapped before he can be alerted.
Ace meets with Lt. Einhorn and alleges that Marino and Snowflake's
kidnappings were connected and that Finkle was involved, claiming that
the Dolphins gave Snowflake Finkle's old number and taught him how to
kick a field goal, which Finkle took as an insult, and that Finkle has
waited for years until the next time the Dolphins return to the Super
Bowl to extract his vengeance on the Miami Dolphins franchise. Einhorn
then comes onto Ace. The two share a kiss (during which Ace feels
something that he assumes to be Einhorn's gun digging into his hip) and
tells him she will now handle the rest of the investigation. Ace, still
not satisfied with Einhorn's efforts to find Marino and Snowflake,
pretends to be mentally challenged so he and Melissa can gain access to
Shady Acres. Ace proceeds to wear a pink tutu along with messing up his
hair. In storage, he discovers an old newspaper amongst Finkle's
discarded belongings, stating that a Lois Einhorn went missing while
hiking and her body was never recovered. Ace reveals this bombshell to
his policeman friend, Emilio, who looks through Einhorn's desk and finds
a love note from Podacter. This eventually leads Ace to the realization
that Einhorn not only killed Podacter, but Lois Einhorn is Ray Finkle
in disguise. His sense of triumph is quickly replaced with disgust after
realizing that he had unknowingly kissed a man, and that the "gun" he
felt digging into his thigh earlier was actually the lieutenant's
erection.
Super Bowl Sunday arrives. Ace follows Lt. Einhorn to a remote
warehouse by the docks, and the two engage in a short struggle before
all of the Miami Police force arrives to arrest Ace on Lt. Einhorn's
orders. They are stopped by Melissa, who has Emilio held hostage at
gunpoint. Lt. Einhorn screams at the police officers that Ace is behind
it all and that he kidnapped Snowflake and was trying to kill Marino and
her. Ace explains Lt. Einhorn's motives and claims that Lt. Einhorn is
actually Ray Finkle. Lt. Einhorn denies all of Ace's accusation, which
leads to Ace trying to find proof of his accusations by first trying to
remove the lieutenant's hair thinking it to be a wig - it turns out to
be her real hair. Next, he rips open Einhorn's blouse to find two
perfect feminine breasts. In a last ditch effort, Ace rips off the her
skirt assuming there to find her penis, but instead appears the normal
figure of a woman. Just as Ace is about to give up on his theory, Marino
alerts Ace of a bulge he can see in Lt. Einhorn's silk panties. Ace now
with concrete proof against Einhorn makes a short humiliating speech
directed at Einhorn and spins her violently around to reveal
Einhorn's/Finkle's huge penis and testicles tucked between her/his legs
in her/his panties to the whole Miami police force. Ace reveals that
Einhorn actually killed Podacter because "he found Captain Winky!" The
whole Miami police force, Marino, and even Snowflake react in total
disgust at this revelation of Lois Einhorn's true identity as Ray
Finkle, suggesting Finkle had kissed all of them as he did with Ace. In a
rage, Finkle makes one last attempt to kill Ace but he flips him over
the wharf into the water. Finkle comes up spitting out water in ruin and
total defeat Ace then finds the ring with the missing stone on his hand
to finalize his theory that Lois Einhorn is no doubt the disgraced Ray
Finkle, Finkle is then arrested for all of his crimes.
Cast
- Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura
- Courteney Cox as Melissa Robinson
- Sean Young as Lt. Lois Einhorn/Ray Finkle
- Tone Lōc as Emilio
- Dan Marino as Himself
- Noble Willingham as Riddle
- Troy Evans as Roger Podacter
- Raynor Scheine as Woodstock
- Udo Kier as Ronald Camp
- Frank Adonis as Vinnie
- Tiny Ron as Roc
- David Margulies as Doctor
- John Capodice as Aguado
- Judy Clayton as Martha Mertz
- Bill Zuckert as Mr. Finkle
- Alice Drummond as Mrs. Finkle
- Rebecca Ferratti as Sexy Woman
- Mark Margolis as Mr. Shickadance
- Don Shula as Himself
- Scott Mitchell as Miami Dolphins Player
- Cannibal Corpse as themselves
- Nosey (Miami Seaquarium, Florida) as Snowflake the dolphin
Release
Box office
Ace Ventura grossed $12,115,105 in 1,750 theaters in its first
week. When it stopped showing in theaters in the US, the total gross
was $72,217,396. It went on to gross $35,000,000 internationally. The
total box office gross worldwide was $107,217,396.[1]
Reception
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective received mixed reviews. It holds a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 51 reviews.[2]
However, it was much more popular with the general public, making back
over six times its budget at the U.S. box office and embedding itself,
the Ventura character, and his catch-phrases in pop culture. Along with The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, the film is widely credited with launching the career of actor Jim Carrey, who was nominated for the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.[3]The film's popularity spawned a 1995 sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, with Carrey returning in the lead role.
The film has been noted as sexist, transphobic, and homophobic for its depiction of Ray Finkle as Lois Einhorn.[4][5][6] Julia Serano cited the film as an example of the trope of "deceptive transsexuals" in the media.[7]
American Film Institute recognition:
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated[8]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "All-righty then!" - Nominated[9]
Allusions
- Ray Finkle's missed kick is loosely based on Scott Norwood's missed game winner in Super Bowl XXV. In reality, the 49ers defeated Miami easily in Super Bowl XIX, 38-16, not by one point as depicted in the film. Miami also played in Super Bowl XVII, but lost to the Washington Redskins 27-17. In Super Bowl XXVII, featured the Dallas Cowboys easily defeating the Buffalo Bills, 52-17. The Dolphins and the Eagles have not played in a Super Bowl aganist each other. Furthermore, the film portrays Super Bowl XXVII as taking place in Miami; in fact, that game took place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California (Miami would host Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, a year after the film's premiere). No team has ever played the Super Bowl in their home stadium in the league's history.
- The plotline of a successful college kicker failing in the NFL and becoming a criminal paralleled the eventual career path of Russell Erxleben. Erxleben, who currently holds the record for the longest field goal in NCAA history (Ventura briefly mentions that Finkle broke that record in the context of the movie), would be convicted of securities fraud in 1999.
- Upon Ace's discovery of Einhorn's true identity, the song 'Crying Game' can be heard, an obvious reference to the eponymous film.
- At Ron Camp's party, the Theme from Mission: Impossible plays as Ace begins to explore the grounds of the estate.
- Snowflake the dolphin is based on the 60s Miami Dolphins mascot Flipper.
- When Ace investigates Roger Podacter's death, he admits defeat when he apparently has no evidence that Podacter's death was a murder instead of a suicide. As he walks off, he dramatically stops in his tracks and utters the phrase "Oh... there is just one more thing..." before presenting his evidence. This phrase, and the mannerisms leading to it, are a direct reference to Columbo, in which the titular character is famous for uttering the phrase when he confirms his suspicion on the suspect he interrogates.
- At Ron Camp's Party when Ace discovers a shark tank he is pushed back and forth by the shark, a reference to Jaws.
- When Ace solves the crime in the apartment, he claims he says "This house is clear". This is a reference to Poltergeist.
In popular culture
- In Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, the titular character suggests sending a client to Ace after hearing that the case involves strange animals.
- Progressive Metal band The Fall of Troy have a song titled "Laces out, Dan" on their debut album.
- In the World of Warcraft raid dungeon of Blackwing Descent there is a character named Finkle Einhorn, a reference to the character in the movie. This character also is tied into a quest line involving the Blackrock Caverns dungeon. He also appears in the Mount Hyjal zone.
- In The Office episode "New Boss", Pam says "I can tell Michael's mood by which comedy routine he chooses to do—the more infantile, the more upset he is—and he just skipped the Ace Ventura talking butt thing. He never skips it".
- In Saints Row: The Third, there is a taunt called "Pet Detective".
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