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Outrageously over the top, Jim Carrey leveraged his nightclub standup into a gig on television. Appearing as an In Living Color regular, his antics and rubber facial expressions made him the natural choice to play Stanley Ipkiss in director Chuck Russell’s comedic take on a comic book known as The Mask.

Stanley is the romantically doomed “nice guy,” forever the pal, frequently taken for granted (at best) or taken advantage of (at worst), he sits in the Edge City Bank each day and longs for a little female companionship. And when a drop-dead gorgeous woman, Tina Carlyle (a nineteen-year-old Cameron Diaz in her first film role) sits at his desk to open an account and seems flirtatious, his wounded self-esteem simply cannot accept that possibility. Unable to express himself, he overcompensates or simply rambles incoherently.

Being unable to express himself is pathological. He cannot muster a comeback for his officious landlady, nor is he able to defend himself against an unscrupulous garage owner, and he rolls over and plays dead whenever his boss, a bank manager by virtue of nepotism, lays into him. Stanley’s only loyal friend appears to be his clever Jack Russell Terrier, Milo. It’s a wonder that he doesn’t explode from frustration. What Stanley needs is an outlet, and it comes in a most unlikely form.

After a particularly disastrous night, he mistakes some floating debris for a drowning man. Stanley jumps into the river and is rewarded only with an odd mask for his trouble. But before you can say Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stanley discovers that donning that mask transforms him into an extrovert with supernatural powers. All his inhibitions repressed, Stanley becomes The Mask, and woe to those who’ve previously abused him. Drawn to the nightclub where Tina appears nightly as a singer, Stanley is quickly embroiled in conflict with underworld boss Dorian Tyrell (Peter Greene) and finds himself being pursued by the police, Lt. Mitch Kellaway (Peter Riegert) in particular.

Will Stanley triumph? Will Tina’s inexplicable attraction to The Mask get in the way of a meaningful relationship? Will Milo save the day? Inspired by the animated musings of Tex Avery, who created a hyper-exaggerated style that inspired many Hollywood animators to come, and aided by the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic, Chuck Russell has fashioned a funny fantasy that was Jim Carrey’s most successful comic role to date. His energy and outrageousness are ideally suited to the antics of The Mask. And Cameron Diaz is positively luminous in this romp; I cannot remember her more appealing in any of her other films, despite her utter lack of experience. Only their very strong performances prevented Max (who played Milo) from stealing the film.

The comic tone and self-consistency within the world of The Mask are pitched perfectly. I was surprised how well this film stands up after eighteen years.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been expanded to fill the entire 1.78:1 video frame and is presented in a very fine high definition transfer compressed with the VC-1 video CODEC at a modest bit rate. Compared to the best HD transfers, this transfer is ever so slightly soft, but at least, unlike the DVD, there are no edge halos. Small object detail remains quite good, but finely grained textures are somewhat suppressed. Color accuracy is excellent, based on very natural skin tones. In fact, the colors conveyed in this transfer are its strongest quality. The Mask’s face is a vivid, almost phosphorescent lime green. Bright colors run through the film and they are delightfully painted to the screen, without a hint of chroma noise or smearing. Shadow detail in the night scenes (the mask only works at night, after all) is also excellent.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

There are two 5.1 tracks on this disc: Dolby Digital and Dolby TrueHD. Please note that the disc defaults to Dolby Digital so don’t forget to switch to the lossless track. The level is a bit on the low side, requiring a 3 dB boost for dialog parity with other discs, but that just leaves more dynamic range for the sound effects. Both tracks have very active surround channels, with directional cues, pans, enveloping applause in the nightclub… it’s all there and wonderfully coherent. Sounds emanate from all directions. Exceptionally deep bass is present as well; it can be felt as well as heard. When The Mask’s heart beats uncontrollably during Tina’s number in the nightclub, I could feel the beats thumping against my diaphragm. The sound effects have a satisfying dynamic range and a nice punch. The score by Randy Edelman and the jazzy source tracks are reproduced with very satisfying fidelity. The dialog is distortion-free throughout.

The alternative English track in Dolby Digital 5.1, sounds harsh by comparison. The alternate language track is in German 5.1. There are optional subtitles in English and Spanish, and English SDH.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The supplements were culled from previously released DVDs.

We begin with two audio commentaries. The first is a feature-length, screen-specific track from director Russell in which he shares many details about the shoot, anecdotes from the set, and musings about the process of filmmaking. The second commentary brings together the director, New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye, screenwriter Mike Werb, executive producer Mike Richardson, producer Bob Engelman, ILM visual effects supervisor Scott Squires, animation supervisor Tom Bertino, and cinematographer John Leonetti. The participants don’t sound like they were in the room having a conversation. These sound like bits and pieces of comments from separate recording sessions that have been edited together to yield an entertaining and informative track. This is more of an oral history of the film than a dissection of the filmmaking. I found it quite worthwhile.

There are four featurettes on this disc, and each is substantive rather than EPK fluff. First is the production featurette entitled Return to Edge City (27:16, 1.78:1, SD). This is a surprisingly comprehensive look at the history of the film and its inspirations. You’ll find some duplication of material covered in the second commentary (some of the same people participate), but here we have the advantages of the visual medium. It’s a nice blend of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with principals. Most of the comments were captured for a DVD release; some were culled from a short produced when the film was originally released.

Introducing Cameron Diaz featurette (13:17, 1.78:1, SD and HD) reveals how hard the filmmakers worked to cast the role of Tina. Diaz was modeling at the time, a nineteen-year- old with no acting ambitions at all. She was talked into auditioning and came in on a lark. Blessed with a charming personality and having no expectations whatsoever (which may have contributed to her unusually high comfort level), she inadvertently won the role. The rest is history. The commentators compliment her on both her performance and her well-grounded approach of learning her craft by avoiding big productions and sticking to little independent films for several years. Of particular interest are her audition tapes.

Next is a tribute to Tex Avery in a featurette called Cartoon Logic (13:43, 1.78:1, SD). The featurette compares Avery’s style, demonstrated with vintage cartoons, with several of The Mask’s antics in the film. Director Chuck Russel, ILM’s Tom Bertino, and predominantly animation historian John Canemaker describe Avery’s influence and make direct comparisons.

The last featurette is What Makes Fido Run (10:51, 1.78:1, SD). This is a warm and fuzzy (pun intended) short about dogs, training dogs, auditioning dogs, casting dogs, working with dogs. Hey, it’s about dogs. And it’s cute. We hear interviews with several trainers who describe how dogs are trained to do what they do onscreen.

Next is the theatrical trailer (1:57, 1.85:1, soft HD).

All that’s left are two additional scenes culled from the original DVDs; they are supplemented with an optional commentary track by director Chuck Russell. The first is an alternate opening that reveals the origin of the mask, and how the spirit of the Nordic god of mischief was trapped in the mask. A second scene involves the bloody death of one of the characters, cut when test audiences indicated their dislike of the sequence.

The 91-minute film is organized into twenty-six chapters.

Final Thoughts

This is a fun diversion that stands up better than I expected. The BD is remarkably colorful, has a great audio track, and a nice collection of supplements. It was a pleasure revisiting this title without the visual impediments of DVD’s vasaline on the lens. I had fun. I think you will to.