Susan Granger’s review of “Son of the Mask” (New Line Cinema)
It’s more than 10 years since Jim Carrey donned the personality-altering “Mask” and let me make one thing clear: Jamie Kennedy is no Jim Carrey. It appears that the magical mask, an artifact belonging to Loki (Alan Cumming), the Norse god of mischief, is missing. It’s found by Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy), an aspiring cartoonist, and his dog Otis. (The name Avery is an homage to Tex Avery, the renown animator whose artistry inspired the first “Mask.” And since the original terrier was named Milo, using Otis this time references “Milo and Otis.”) And Tim is wearing that mask when he and his wife (Traylor Howard of TV’s “Monk”) conceive a child who inherits Loki’s shape-shifting proclivities. Indeed, when little Alvey (Ryan & Liam Falconer) watches the famous Warner Bros. cartoon, “One Froggy Evening,” real trouble begins. Meanwhile, Loki’s father, the powerful Odin (Bob Hoskins), demands that he retrieve the mask – under dire threats of retribution of he doesn’t. Director Lawrence Guterman (“Cats and Dogs”) seems far more interested in the digital technology than the fact that the first-time writer Lance Khazei’s contrived script makes little or no sense. It also never occurs to anyone that these characters and their marauding mayhem are appallingly unappealing. This movie revolves around live-action animation of which the original had very little. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Son of the Mask” is a misguided, manic 1. Allegedly “family-friendly,” it’s definitely a contender for my 10 Worst Movies of 2005 list. And what’s really creepy is that, when Jamie Kennedy dons “The Mask,” he morphs into Gary Busey look-alike that’s melded with Nick Nolte.
