Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
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An eccentric animal detective must track down a stolen dolphin mascot before a major football game.
The story
Ace Ventura, an eccentric private investigator in Miami, specializes in rescuing animals and is frequently mocked by the Miami Police Department. After the Miami Dolphins' mascot, a bottlenose dolphin named Snowflake, is stolen from the team's stadium, publicist Melissa Robinson hires Ventura to recover the dolphin before the upcoming Super Bowl. Ventura's investigation leads him to suspect billionaire Ronald Camp, a collector of exotic animals, after finding an amber stone in Snowflake's tank. The search leads Ventura into a web of mystery involving a mysterious figure and a desperate quest to save the team's mascot in time for the big game.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Ace Ventura, an eccentric private investigator in Miami, is hired by publicist Melissa Robinson to find the stolen mascot of the Miami Dolphins, a bottlenose dolphin named Snowflake. Ventura's investigation leads him to suspect billionaire Ronald Camp, but he eventually rules him out. The investigation takes a turn when the Dolphins' head of operations, Roger Podacter, is found dead. Ventura discovers that a former player, Ray Finkle, who was obsessed with revenge against quarterback Dan Marino, has escaped from a psychiatric facility. Ventura and Robinson discover that Finkle has assumed the identity of a missing hiker, Lois Einhorn, and has infiltrated the police department. On the day of the Super Bowl, Ventura tracks Einhorn to a boat storage facility where Marino and Snowflake are being held. After a struggle, Einhorn is apprehended by police. The film ends with Ventura being hailed as a hero and engaging in a comedic dispute over a rare pigeon.
- First release year
- 1994
- Runtime (minutes)
- 86
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Tom Shadyac
- Writers
- Jack Bernstein · screenplay; Tom Shadyac · screenplay; Jim Carrey · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Jim Carrey · Ace Ventura; Sean Young; Courteney Cox; Tone Loc; Dan Marino
- Genres
- comedy; crime; mystery
- Themes
- revenge; identity
- Tone and mood
- comedy; absurd
- Setting
- Miami, Florida during the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
- Premise and plot tags
- animal detective; sports comedy
- Content notes
- gross-out humor; homophobic jokes
- Reception
- The film received generally unfavorable reviews from critics but developed a cult following, particularly among male adolescents.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 37 · scale: 100 · review count: 14; Rotten Tomatoes · score: 4.9 · scale: 10 · review count: 65
- Production trivia
- The film was originally considered for several different actors, including Rick Moranis and Judd Nelson.; The band Cannibal Corpse performed a song in the film at the request of Jim Carrey.; The film was shot in Miami, Florida in the second quarter of 1993.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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