KEEPING IT ONE HUN'ID (100%)

"Let me tell you somethin!" That was the signature catch phrase of Fire Marshall Bill. One of Jim Carrey's many characters on the popular 90's sketch show In Living Color. When I was first introduced to that character, I did not know what to make of it but I stayed with Jim because of the energy he put into that character. He was manic and going one hundred miles per hour in his performance. But that is how he was with all his characters, even secondary characters in a sketch. If he played Ricky Ricardo in a sketch titled I LOVE LAQUITA, he didn't play Ricky, he WAS Ricky. If he played a nine year old sitting on Homey D. Clown's lap, he was an annoying 9 year old with all the bells, whistles and ticks of a 9 year old kid. I've been revisiting the canon of Jim Carrey because I recently saw the film, THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, in which Jim played a goth-type, self inflicting pain magician against Steve Carell's titular Burt Wonderstone. The movie going crowd was sparse and I would say the laughs the returned to the screen were too. But for me, when there were laughs it was for Jim Carrey who was going all out to make us laugh. Be it, acting as if he held his urine for eleven straight days or periodically screaming bloody murder because he was sleeping on hot coals. My personal favorite drilling a hole in his head with an actual power drill. It was a truly silly film in the vein of Austin Powers but it was funny in my humble opinion. Now I may be talking matinee or "dollar show" funny, only because it costs to go to the movie in this economy. Even if it's a blockbuster, I get pissed about the prices. Hell, I'm still upset about the money I dropped on The Avengers, but that's another time, another blog. After the film, I went home to see the reviews of the film and as I thought they were not all positive, but despite the negativity they all spoke of Jim Carrey's 'balls to the wall', 'gonzo' performance as this David Blaine/Criss Angel type street magician. Mind you if you surf the web of recent and Jim Carrey has been placed into the elephant graveyard right next to one Edward Reagan Murphy aka Eddie Murphy to us non Murphy family members. I then perused Carrey's filmography. Each and every performance I recalled and there was not one performance, no matter how poorly the film did financially, did Diamond Jim Carrey phone his performance in. As much as I want to say Eddie has never phoned in a performance, there are a few where he looked like he was doing his "tough street brother" schtick from a villa in Monte Carlo. But trust me Eddie belongs in the hashtag-underappreciated category too. But back to Jim, be it Lemony Snickets, Bruce Almighty, The Grinch, a cameo on The Office or just accepting an MTV Movie Award like a Jim Morrison knock off-- the dude puts in work on any character he does. I guess I've always appreciated him, even his dramatic work, which I suggest you screen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Man On the Moon or The Majestic. All three are earnest performances, The Majestic is a throwback to the Billy wilder films of days gone by and has a bit of treacle with no cutter, but nonetheless James dives into the character. No matter, what acting choices he took, he TOOK them and as my old football coaches would say, "Even if you're doing it wrong, just give me 100%." And that's what Jim does. I wrote this entry because in a general sense I try to appreciate people before their photo is over the shoulder of a newscaster reporting their death. On a micro level, I appreciate that Jim knows he is paid handsomely for what he does and like him or hate him he tries to give you your money's worth if possible. Jimbo keeps it hun'id! Now Follow Me! Follow Me to Freedom!