Metacritic reviews

Treat this project as you would a safari: It has its slow parts but the wildlife makes it worthwhile.

He's so over-energized from the start you keep thinking he'll wear out his welcome pronto; an hour and a half later, his lunacy is still hard to take your eyes off. [04Feb1994 Pg. F6]

The movie has the metabolism, logic and attention span of a peevish 6-year-old.

Neither terrible, boring nor soporific, just not very funny.

From the start, it's obvious that this is a vehicle for his comedy, and it mostly works -- for about ten to fifteen minutes. After that, Carrey's act gradually grows less humorous and more tiresome, and the laughter in the audience seems forced.

Manic energy is the term that comes most readily to mind when describing Ace Ventura.

I found the movie a long, unfunny slog through an impenetrable plot. Kids might like it.

The most obnoxious case of masculine swagger since Andrew Dice Clay, with just a tad of Paul Lynde thrown in for spice, Jim Carrey defies you not to bolt for the exit while playing the title hero in this 1994 comic mystery.

In this smutty kiddie farce he's a clownish action toy, and he grows wearying, fast.

Carrey suggests an escaped mental patient impersonating a game-show host-and, what's worse, his hyperbolically obnoxious shtick is the whole damned show.