The Mask (film)

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The Mask
Image:The Mask.JPG Movie poster
Directed by	Chuck Russell
Produced by	Robert Engelman
Written by	Michael Fallon (story) Mark Verheiden (story) Mike Werb
Starring	Jim Carrey Cameron Diaz Peter Greene Richard Jeni Peter Riegert Amy Yasbeck Orestes Matacena
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Editing by	Arthur Coburn
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	July 29th, 1994
Running time	97 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$18,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Mask is an Oscar-nominated comedy film, based on a series of comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. This film was directed by Chuck Russell, produced by Dark Horse Entertainment and New Line Cinema, and originally released to movie theatres by 1994. The film stars Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss (also known as The Mask).

A sequel, Son of the Mask, was released in theaters in 2005 to box office and critical disapproval.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Reaction
4 Cultural and literary allusions
5 References
6 External link

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film centers around two men who live in Edge City: one of them is a banker named Stanley Ipkiss, a low-on-his-luck helpless romantic who is often bullied by his flat manager and the son of his bank manager; the other is a gangster named Dorian Tyrell, another low-on-his-luck man who plans to overthrow his boss Niko, and is planning to rob Edge City Bank (ironically, Stanley's bank) in order to gain enough money for he and his friends to ascend to the Mafia Top.

Caught in the middle of these two men's lives is a mysterious wooden mask. According to a somewhat half-hearted psychologist, it is a representation of Loki, the Trickster God. This goes toward explaining why, if Stanley puts it on at night, he is transformed into an overenthusiastic figure clad in a yellow suit, with a green face and the ability to make almost anything happen. In one night, "The Mask" changes a balloon-toy into a working tommy gun with which he scatters some thieves; in another, he convinces the entire police department to dance with him, after they come to arrest him for stealing Dorian's target money. In addition, on seeing a lady (Tina Carlyle, Dorian's paramour) sing on stage, his heart can be seen leaping at her independently of the torso. At this, he leaps up, dances with Tina, and kisses her. Intrigued, she begins to court the Mask.

Dorian is jealous and arranges for the seizure of Stanley and of the Mask itself, and succeeds in doing so with the help of Peggy, Stanley's confidante. He puts the Mask on and is changed into a kind of green-faced troll (known by fans as Dorian Loki Tyrell), which sets out to overthrow Niko and become a tyrant. Stanley, Tina, and Stanley's dog Milo are all held prisoner. At a ballroom, Tina convinces Dorian to remove the Mask so that he can give her a kiss before killing her for what he perceives as untrue. Milo puts it on instead, becoming a cartoony green-headed bulldog as a result. He frees the humans and passes the mask to Stanley, who uses it to make Dorian vanish from the "real world". Later, Stanley and Tina, who is now his girlfriend, take the Mask to the ocean and throw it in, intending to live out their lives normally.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask
Peter Riegert as Lt. Mitch Kellaway
Peter Greene as Dorian Tyrell/Dorian Loki Tyrell
Cameron Diaz as Tina Carlyle
Orestes Matacena as Niko
Richard Jeni as Charlie Schumaker
Amy Yasbeck as Peggy Brandt
Ben Stein as Dr. Arthur Neuman
Reginald E. Carthey as Freeze
Denis Forest as Sweet Eddy
Nancy Fish as Mrs. Peenman

[edit] Reaction

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film 3 stars, noting Carrey for his "joyful performance."<ref>Ebert, Roger (July 29th, 1994). The Mask. rogerebert.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.</ref>

[edit] Cultural and literary allusions

The laugh performed by "The Mask" toward the end of the movie (after revealing his guns were loaded with nothing more than signs reading "Bang!"), is reminiscent of Carrey's Fire Marshal Bill character from In Living Color. At the end of the movie, "The Mask" performs a famous line by Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry by saying "Now, you got to ask yourself one question. 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punks?". Ben Stein also appears in the movie as "Dr. Arthur Neuman," author of a book titled The Masks We Wear.