“The Mask” was one of the big blockbusters of the 1994 cinema year. It was not so much the story that was convincing, but rather the mercilessly good special effects. The two newcomers at the time, Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, are now firmly ePosted by Gunn Solomon on January 16th, 2021 "Mask 2" begins ten years after the events of its predecessor. This time, the focus of the perfidious game is not a single person, but a whole family. At first the Averys only consist of Tim (Jamie Kennedy), his wife Tonya (Traylor Howard) and their dog Bear, who also brings the magic mask known from the first part at home and thus messes everything up. The first to fall under the spell of the mask is Tim. The otherwise inconspicuous cartoon artist mutates into a mood cannon at a Halloween party and soon smells the key to a great career in his mask. While Tonya's biological clock is ticking, Tim would like to spare himself the joys of becoming a father. Under the influence of the mask, celibacy is just such a thing and after nine months little Alvey (which normal person actually baptizes his child Alvey Avery ?!) finally sees the light of day. At first everything goes like in any ordinary small family, but when Tonya has to leave her husband and pupil alone for a week because of a business trip, chaos breaks out ... Assigning a man like Lawrence Guterman to direct "The Mask 2" isn't the worst idea in the first place. With “Cats And Dogs” Guterman did not make a film in 2001 that will go down in the analysts of film history, but the commercial success was considerable with a world grossing of 200 million dollars. As with “Cats And Dogs”, in “The Mask 2”, at least from a technical point of view, he manages an interplay between real recordings, animatronics and computer effects. But this is exactly where the big problem lies. The viewer cannot help but notice that Guterman only really focused on the technical aspect of the film. Many gags are well known and have already been copied too often. Anyone who knows the predecessor and has also followed the TV cartoon series on the fringes will see little new. What Guterman and screenwriter Lance Khazei do is a little creative use of leftovers.
In a film like "The Mask 2", the actors can shine thanks to brilliant dialogues and the chamber play-like staging ... no, seriously: Anyone expecting any miracles will probably also believe in the Easter Bunny. Leading actor Jamie Kennedy is best known as the movie junkie Randy Meeks from Wes Craven's "Scream" trilogy. He got his first leading role in the total flop “Malibus Most Wanted”, which landed a nasty belly in the States and went straight to video stores in Germany. And what does he do in "The Mask 2"? Making annoying faces and making it harder for the audience to identify with the main character as much as possible. Alan Cumming was most recently seen in Bryan Singer's "X-Men 2" as a Nightcrawler. The astonishing parallel to his role in "The Mask 2" is that in both cases his play is so covered by extensive make-up and special effects that it is simply impossible to determine whether he is a good or a bad actor is. Bob Hoskins ("Wrong Game with Roger Rabbit", "Manhattan Love Story") doesn’t get beyond a supporting role and Traylor Howard (“Both of me and her”) serves only as love interest anyway.
The international press response to "The Mask 2" was devastating. Almost every critic has torn the film up completely. However, a cautious but must be added here meekly. Of course, the optical gimmicks in the post-matrix age no longer blow you away. Of course, the gags are from the day before yesterday and are often nothing more than a tired smile. But “The Mask 2” is de facto a flawless children's film and as such works with stabbing.
this site on heart: the little ones will certainly find this juxtaposition of puns amusing. And when mum or dad go to the cinema with them, they have to take a deeper breath here and there and can otherwise console themselves with the fact that "Mask 2" is over after 95 minutes ...
Viewed with a little distance and some goodwill, the film can even score points here and that with various very nice ideas. The act de presented as a computer-animated sequence
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