Son of the Mask

Son of the Mask
Son of the Mask theatrical poster
Directed by	Lawrence Guterman
Produced by	Erica Huggins Scott Kroopf
Written by	Lance Khazei
Starring	Jamie Kennedy Alan Cumming Traylor Howard Steven Wright Kal Penn and Bob Hoskins
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	Greg Gardiner
Editing by	Malcolm Campbell John Coniglio Debra Neil-Fisher
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	February 18, 2005
Running time	90 min
Country	USA Germany
Language	English
Budget	$84,000,000
Gross revenue	Domestic $17,018,422 Foreign $40,534,165 Worldwide $57,552,587
Preceded by	The Mask: The Animated Series

Son of the Mask is the 2005 sequel to the 1994 comedy film, The Mask, directed by Lawrence Guterman. The movie had an $84 million budget and a $17 million domestic box office gross, along with a $40 million foreign box office gross. The film "won" the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel.

Plot

Ten years after the adventures of Stanley Ipkiss, who does not appear in this film, a museum custodian (Ben Stein) is giving a tour of the hall of Norse Mythology in Edge City. A man comes in to view the hall. When the custodian reaches the part concerning Loki's imprisonment, the stranger becomes very angry and transforms, revealing himself to be Loki . The tourists panic and flee, but the custodian stays to argue with the angry god. Loki takes the mask of Loki, but realizes it is a fake. In anger he removes the custodians face and puts it on the mask's stand before storming out of the museum in a whirlwind of rage.

In a town called Fridge City, Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy), an aspiring cartoonist at an animation company, is feeling reluctant to become a father. He has a beautiful wife, Tonya (Traylor Howard), and a best friend, Jorge (Kal Penn), who is very shy around women. Tim has a close relationship with his dog Otis, who finds an ancient mask in a faroff creek and brings it to his owner's house.

Tim puts on the mask for a Halloween party, transforming into a party animal that is similar to the mask character from the first film. At the party, Tim ogles a young woman (Victoria Thaine), eagerly confronts her, and uses his powers to have her stripped down to a skimpy costume and into Jorge's arms. When the company party turns out to be a bore, Tim uses his mask powers to perform a remix of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", therefore making the party a success, and giving Tim's boss the idea for a new cartoon. Tim returns to his house and, while still wearing the mask, has sexual intercourse with his wife, conceiving a baby. The baby, when he is born, has the same powers as Loki. Meanwhile, Loki (Alan Cummings) is trying to find the child born from the mask, since if he finds the child, he will find the mask.

Later, Tonya goes on a business trip, leaving Tim with the baby. Tim, who has been promoted at work, desperately tries to work on his cartoon at home, but is disrupted by baby Alvie. In order to get some peace and quiet, Tim lets Alvie watch television; while watching a Michigan J. Frog cartoon, baby Alvie devilishly obtains the idea to mess with his father's head by using his mask powers. Meanwhile, Otis the dog, who has been feeling neglected by Tim, dons the mask by accident and becomes a crazed animal version of himself, who wishes to get rid of the baby. Tim starts to notice his son and dog's wild cartoonish behavior, when Alvie starts harassing him, while Otis attempts to attack baby Alvie, but is humorously thwarted.

Eventually, Loki finds the mask-born baby, and confronts Tim for the mask back. When Tim is unable to present the mask to him, Loki chases him into an alley and attempts to kill him with a giant grenade, but Alvey protects his dad from the imposing danger. Before Loki attempts to attack Tim again, Odin (Bob Hoskins) possesses Tim's body, only to find that Loki has failed to obtain the mask and takes his powers away as punishment. Being freed from danger, Tim realizes he is late for the presentation of his first cartoon. Unfortunately, Tim is unprepared when he arrives, and is fired as a result.

Loki summons Odin, and convinces him to give him his powers back for an hour, to get his mask back. He threatens Tim into showing up with the mask or else he will never see his son again. Tonya returns, and she and Tim go to find Otis who is on date with a neighbourhood dog. Tim then apologies to Otis, and convinces him to give him back the mask to save Alvie. They then meet Loki in the alley, but Loki refuses to give the baby back (after happening to have bonded with him).

It ends in a brawl between Loki and Tim, who puts on the mask again. After a crazy fight between the god and the "superhuman", Loki figures they are evenly matched opponents and believes that they should let the baby decide who he wants to be with. He chooses Tim after the latter delivers a tearful apology to his son for not paying attention to him. But Loki is not prepared to give up so easily, knowing the price he will have to pay if he fails in his mission. He pulls a giant hammer out, similar to the one seen in the first film, and tries to smash Tim, his wife, and the baby. As he is about to smash all three of them, Tim suddenly protects his wife and the baby from the hammer with apparent super strength. Drills come from the hammer and proceed towards Tim. Just when Loki is about to finally crush them, his time runs out and Odin comes back, and attacks him for his failure at his mission, saying that he is "in every sense of the word, a failure". As he is about to banish Loki, Tim stands up to the powerful god, telling him that Loki is his son, and that the most important thing in the universe is the relationship with your family. Tim then gives the mask to Loki who presents it to his father. Loki and Odin, now reconciled, return to Asgard happily.

Tim then comes back to work, with a great idea for a cartoon: A baby and a dog competing for Dad's attention. At the end, Tonya reveals that she is pregnant again.

Production

Director Chuck Russell, who helmed the original film, expressed his interest in a Mask sequel in his 1996 commentary when DVD became popular with consumers. He was hoping Jim Carrey would come back as The Mask, along with Amy Yasbeck, who played reporter Peggy Brandt in the original. Russell decided to cut scenes when Peggy dies and leave the character open for the sequel, which became this film. The concept was completely changed when Carrey decided not to return.

Ben Stein reprises his role of Dr. Arthur Neuman from the first film. He is involved in the movie to reestablish the relationship between the mask and its creator, Loki. He is the only actor to appear in both films as well as The Mask cartoon series.

The dog's name, Otis, connects with the dog from the first movie and comic book, Milo, as a reference to the movie The Adventures of Milo and Otis. The naming of "Tim Avery" pays homage to famous cartoonist Tex Avery. Tim Avery wants to be a cartoonist throughout the film.

This is one of four films which were sequels to films starring Jim Carrey, but did not involve Carrey in any way (the others being Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Evan Almighty, and Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective - not counting Batman and Robin).

Cast and characters

Awards and nominations

2005 Golden Raspberry Awards

Eight nominations:

• Worst Picture
• Worst Actor (Jamie Kennedy)
• Worst Supporting Actor (Alan Cumming)
• Worst Supporting Actor (Bob Hoskins)
• Worst Director (Lawrence Guterman)
• Worst Screenplay (Lance Khazei)
• Worst Remake or Sequel
• Worst Screen Couple (Jamie Kennedy & Traylor Howard)

Won:

• Worst Remake or Sequel

Background in Norse mythology

Despite the film having a background in Norse mythology, nearly all of the ideas presented about Norse mythology in the film are inaccurate.

The film presents the ideas that:

• Odin is Loki's father.
• Thor is Loki's brother.

While, in reality, according to Norse mythology:

• the only relationship between Loki and Odin is their blood brotherhood.

Also, in the first Mask film, the Mask (the item itself) only works at night, due to Loki being a "night god." In this film, the powers of the Mask, Loki, and the baby show no such restriction, which is similar to the animated series incarnation of the Mask franchise.

Reception

The movie was roasted for mainly being another sequel without Jim Carrey, and having horrid special effects. It bombed at the box office, making just $17 million, about $102 million short of the original. The movie remains on the IMDb Bottom 100, and is in the Top 10 of the Bottom 200 movie list at Everyone's a Critic. It also has a dismal 6% on Rotten Tomatoes,[105] and was included in their Top 100 worst reviewed movies of the last 10 years. In his review on At The Movies, Richard Roeper stated "In the five years I've been co-hosting this show, this is the closest I've ever come to walking out halfway through the film, and now that I look back on the experience, I wish I had."Lou Lumerick of the New York Post said "Parents who let their kids see this stinker should be brought up on abuse charges; so should the movie ratings board that let this suggestive mess slip by with a PG rating."It was the most nominated film at the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards, winning for Worst Remake or Sequel, and won several 2005 Stinkers Awards, including Worst Actor (Jamie Kennedy), Worst Sequel, and Worst Couple (Kennedy and anyone forced to co-star with him).

See also

List of films considered the worst

References

This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (July 2006)

External links

• Official site
• Son of the Mask at the Internet Movie Database
• Son of the Mask at Allmovie