Many franchises have survived a change in lead over the years, but for some reason, sequels to Jim Carrey movies that don't include him always fail. While he doesn't act as much as he used to, Carrey is no doubt a comedy legend, and would retain that status if he decided to retire tomorrow. He certainly has detractors, as most comedians do, but Carrey's list of blockbuster movie hits over the course of multiple decades proves that he has millions of fans.
Carrey made his name playing the wackiest of comedic roles, including starring in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber in the same year. Further hits like Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty proved his rise wasn't a fluke, and films like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also went on to show off Carrey's considerable dramatic chops. However, one thing he's never been fond of is starring in sequels.
In fact, Carrey has only returned to star in two sequels over the course of his career, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Dumb and Dumber To. Carrey has said this is because he's not particularly fond of sequels, seeing them as money grabs that feel like he's repeating himself. With recent rumblings of an Ace Ventura 3, but no confirmation Carrey is signed to return, Hollywood may be about to be reminded of the folly in making sequels to Jim Carrey movies that don't star Jim Carrey.
It could be argued bad scripts are a large cause of how bad movies like Son of the Mask, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, and Evan Almighty are, but one could also argue that Carrey playing the lead would've still elevated those scripts. That's not to say that Jamie Kennedy, Eric Christian Olsen, and Steve Carell, who starred in the aforementioned Carrey-less sequels, aren't talented performers. Carell is himself a massive comedy star thanks to projects like The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The problem is that Carrey is truly a one-of-a-kind presence.
Carrey is an extremely unique comedic performer, with a manic energy and boundless charisma that few others can compete with. This is shown by how much his roles, and the films he stars in, are tailor-made for him. They're designed to accentuate Carrey's positives to the nth degree, and so much of what makes The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and Bruce Almighty work comes down to Carrey's performances. Even someone as acclaimed as Steve Carell is still a very different actor to Carrey, and trying to slot him into the template Bruce Almighty established just didn't work, especially since Evan Baxter's switch from jerk to nice guy didn't make such sense. Yet, when a movie is built specifically for Carell to lead, he nails it.
While a character like James Bond is able to be molded and reinvented for new actors to take over, partially thanks to his roots in literature, character and movie franchises tied to Carrey tend be almost impossible to remove from his considerable shadow. As much as they might want to, Hollywood should really have learned by now that replacing Jim Carrey in a sequel to his films and hoping for the best is a strategy doomed for failure. Hopefully, the producers of Ace Ventura 3 heed that lesson.
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