Word: ace
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...Niro plays Ace Rothstein, a Jewish odds maker so successful in Brooklyn that he is sent to run the massive Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Now that they are legal, his talents are even more impressive; Ace's stoic and calculated methods are a thrill to watch...
With pinpoint precision and in fearfully good style, Ace refines every element of the Tangiers. Not even the chefs escape criticism, as Ace demands more consistency in the number of blueberries in each muffin...
...WEEKEND BEFORE LAST, moviegoers spent $37.8 million to see the new Jim Carrey comedy, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls--more money than the combined take of Nos. 2 through 20 on the box-office list. Few films have achieved such instant dominance, and certainly none so awful as this sequel, about the pet detective's trip to Africa to find a precious white bat and prevent a war between two backward tribes. Nearly the best one can say of Ace 2 is that it's blithely, ceaselessly racist...
...Mask, Dumb & Dumber and Batman Forever, the star created a maniacally precise comic style. Here--well, he works hard. In the 105 minutes of Ace 2, Carrey rides an ostrich; feeds an eaglet mouth to mouth; emerges from the anus of a mechanical rhino; makes his eyebrows move like kooky caterpillars; bends over and utters the Tarzan cry through his rear; sneezes on, spits at and blows paper wads into the faces of various African men; and sings Chitty Chitty Bang Bang several times more than is absolutely necessary...
This review is not the cry of a prude. Frankly, we don't care if a joke's funny as long as it's dirty. But in switching writer-directors, from the first film's Tom Shadyac to Steve Oedekerk, Carrey lost a clever farceur and got what Ace would call a la-hoo-za-her (loser). The star plays more than ever to himself; the cast stands around starched and embarrassed, like white-tie judges at a wet-T shirt contest. Wearying, stupefying, dumber than dumb, When Nature Calls would be a career ender for Carrey--except that...