Ep. 37: Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

Should They Watch It?

The Should They Watch It ladies are changing it up this week and dial the way back machine to 1994 to rewatch the Jim Carrey classic Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Does it hold up?

In case you missed it, Ace Ventura is about an off-kilter pet detective who is on the case of a missing Miami Dolphins mascot named Snowflake. An early-career Courteney Cox is featured as his love interest, with rapper, Tone Loc, and superstar QB, Dan Marino, also dipping their toes in the acting pool. It’s peak mid-90’s high energy, slapstick Jim Carrey.

Laura remembers loving and quoting the movie as a kid along with her peers, while Kara, on the other hand had a very different opinion from day one! Early career comedy Jim Carrey was not her style, though both agree that, as a serious actor in movies like Eternal Sunshine and Truman Show, he was excellent. Kara recounts a story about her first date with an overly persistent wannabe Jim Carrey that ended in her walking out.

While the butt-talking still makes Laura laugh, and Kara’s son Michael finds it hysterical, there is round agreement that this one is frozen in time. For a PG-13 movie it does not translate to today’s culture, so neither would show it to their kids. In addition to sexual themes and vulgar language, the hosts note objectification of women, ableism, transphobia, and harmful messages about mental health. Ace also comes off unlikeable and at times overly mean-spirited!

In the end, this is a big NO from both hosts as they cannot recommend this show for young viewers, or for anyone in 2022 for that matter.

Side conversations:

Laura is a flavor saver, sticking her gum on the sides of cans if it has anything left to it. Kara is disgusted by her “gum slugs” and can’t deal. Laura explains her behavior away by saying that she spends half her time as a supermom and the rest as a 15-year-old boy. Kara wishes she could use her 45-year-old brain inside her 20-year-old body to raise her kids while on her dog’s sleep schedule.

A housecat in Australia is caught stealing toys from all over her neighborhood. Kara’s cat Simon does this same thing with socks and shoes and on one occasion showed up with a pair of Mickey Mouse house shoes. Simon also drops her findings in the food bowl inside the house which will elicit screeches from the male cat, Shuffle, who refuses to eat with them in there.

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