Put away that spec script for The Cable Guy 2, and dash all hopes for Liar, Liar, Liar. Jim Carrey says that even though he has done a few sequels in his lifetime, he's pretty much done with them. And he has a very specific reason, which has absolutely nothing to do with talking out of one's butt cheeks. OK, it has a little bit to do with talking out of one's butt cheeks. Elaborating on his creative choices, Carrey recently said this:
I find sequels are a function of commerce for the most part. At least the two I've done, they were characters I enjoyed doing, but I did find myself almost parroting myself at that point. When you put 10 years between you and the last time you did it, suddenly you're going, 'How did I do that again?'... So, you're imitating your original inspiration. It was super fun with Jeff, but I'm not a crazy sequel guy.
It's worth pointing out that the two sequels Jim Carrey has done in his career have been two terrible films... so this might have soiled him on the concept of follow up movies. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was a lunatic's fever dream, a one-joke comedy that milked every single laugh out of an hilarious premise about a private dick searching for a stolen dolphin. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls ran the concept of Ace's obnoxious behavior into the ground.
Recently, Jim Carrey, who was talking to THR, tried to go back to the well with Jeff Daniels when the two comedians revisited Dumb & Dumber for the laughless Dumb & Dumber, To. It proved how difficult it was to truly "go home" again, with Carrey -- as he comments -- essentially parroting jokes that worked the first time, but fell oh so very flat on a second pass.
Ironically, Jim Carrey has found some success coming into franchises where he doesn't start things, but figures out how to advance them. Though comic-book fans tend to despise Joel Schumacher's neon-drenched Batman movies, Carrey's manic take on The Riddler largely worked. And when Jim Carrey joined the hyper-violent world of Kick-Ass 2, he discovered ways to leave his mark:
But Jim Carrey can afford to be picky nowadays -- mainly because, thanks to some alternate styles of thinking, he'll tell you that there IS not Jim Carrey, and he's just a bundle of unusual energies. He's right about most sequels, though. The majority of them exist to push commerce, and too few stem from worthy ideas. That's part of the reason why we went into Dumb & Dumber, To with anticipation. Why would these guys get back together, if not to make a truly funny comedic sequel. Unfortunately, even the best intentions can run astray.
