Jim Carrey's 6 Best And 6 Worst Movies

Jim Carrey is a man of extremes. He's either stretching his face to breaking point in an outrageous, over-the-top comedic performance à la "Dumber and Dumber," "Ace Ventura," and "The Mask," or tugging at your heartstrings with tender, more subtle roles in "The Truman Show" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Sadly, and happily, this can describe the quality of his movies, too. For every comedic cult classic in Carrey's filmography, there's a lousy, unfunny flop to match it. And for every skippable, misguided thriller, there's a dramatic masterstroke that outshines it.

His movies are hit or miss, but that doesn't mean we love him any less than we did when he first manically exploded onto the screen in the late '80s. So what are Jim's best movies? What are his worst? Get ready to laugh for the right and wrong reasons. These are the 6 best and 6 worst Jim Carrey movies of all time.

In "Liar Liar," Jim Carrey plays Fletcher Reede, a lawyer who, after building his career on lying, is cursed to only speak the truth for 24 hours. You probably saw the ending from miles away, in which Reede learns the value of honesty and promises to spend more time with the family his pathological dishonesty has alienated. But that's okay. It's the journey, not the destination, that makes the movie work.

The movie combines the best of both worlds when it comes to Jim Carrey movies. We get Carrey's huge and screen-grabbing performance, complete with loads of physical humor, and a tender, funny script with something to say. Miraculously, the two don't step on each other's toes at all. Instead, Carrey got to showcase his more mature side. It's no "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in that regard, as he's still undeniably '90s-era Jim Carrey here, but he did get to prove to future filmmakers that he had more to offer than outrageous, rubber-faced buffoonery.

The positive critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, "Despite its thin plot, 'Liar Liar' is elevated by Jim Carrey's exuberant brand of physical humor, and the result is a laugh riot that helped to broaden the comedian's appeal."

Based on the first three novels of the series of the same name, 2004's "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Daniel Handler follows the dastardly Count Olaf (Carrey) and his endlessly creative attempts to steal the inheritance of the three Baudelaire children, distant relatives who were orphaned after a house fire and placed in his custody. After Olaf's attempt to have them killed fails, the children are placed in the charge of different relatives around town. Olaf is never far behind, always dressed as different characters to meddle with their plans. He must not be as talented as he thinks, because the children never fall for his ruses and always use clever inventions to thwart Olaf before it's too late.

As Olaf is a stage actor who seizes every opportunity to don elaborate disguises (both for fun and to deceive the Baudelaires), Carrey has plenty of opportunities to have fun here. And critics noticed: His characteristically ludicrous performance was the centerpiece of the movie.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics consensus reads, "Although it softens the nasty edges of its source material, 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' is a gothic visual treat, and it features a hilariously manic turn from Jim Carrey as the evil Count Olaf."

In "The Mask," Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, an unlucky loser whose car beaks down at night on a bridge. When he thinks he sees someone floating in the waters, he leaps into the sea to save them. The face he saw is actually an ancient, cursed mask, which turns its wearer into The Mask — a green-faced, zoot-suit-wearing, and troublemaking wiseass who can cartoonishly alter himself and his surroundings at will. His self-doubt evaporates behind this new identity, allowing Ipkiss to go on a riotous rampage throughout the city humiliating his tormentors, confounding the police, stopping robberies, and winning the affections of Tina (Cameron Diaz), the woman he loves.

Not every movie can benefit from the wild, otherworldly energy Carrey is known for, but "The Mask" was made for him. It makes the most of every facial contortion, every weird sound, every over-the-top laugh, and dials it all up to levels even he can't reach alone. Roger Ebert said it best: "'The Mask' is a perfect vehicle for the talents of Jim Carrey, who ... seems to have found a story and character that work together with manic energy. One of the key design decisions on the movie must have involved the Mask character's makeup. It transforms Carrey's features into a much larger, comic-bookish parody, but at the same time the features are still able to move in a lifelike way"  (via RogerEbert.com).

In "Dumb and Dumber," two dimwitted friends, dog groomer Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) and limo driver Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey), embark on a road trip to Colorado to return luggage to Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly), a woman Christmas became infatuated with at the airport. But the briefcase is actually full of ransom money, roping the pair into a wacky criminal scheme.

Let's just get this out of the way: "Dumb and Dumber" lives up to its name. It's as stupid as its main characters, but that's why it works. It succeeds where other goofball comedies fail because it manages to let its leads shine in all their absurd, slapstick glory, while still paying proper attention to the story and supporting characters. Jeff Daniels, who had just done "Gettysburg" the year before and who's far more known for dramatic roles, holds his own as an outrageous buffoon. And Carrey's performance cemented him as perhaps the most famous comedic actor of the '90s.

Rotten Tomatoes summarizes its positive critics score with this consensus: "A relentlessly stupid comedy elevated by its main actors: Jim Carrey goes bonkers and Jeff Daniels carries himself admirably in an against-type performance." Even Roger Ebert wasn't immune to the movie's charms. He only gave it 2 out of 4 stars, but admitted that a scene in the beginning, revolving around a blind boy and a pet parakeet he didn't know was dead, "made me laugh so loudly I embarrassed myself. I just couldn't stop."

One of the most beloved gems of the '90s, "The Truman Show" follows Carrey as the titular Truman Burbank, a resident of Seahaven Island whose happy routine is suddenly interrupted by unusual events. A spotlight falls from the sky onto his yard. A radio program describes everything he's doing in real time. And for some reason, everyone in town is desperately trying to keep him from going on his first road trip. He then discovers something about himself that the entire planet already knows: He's the unwitting star of a smash hit reality TV series based on his life called "The Truman Show." Seahaven Island is actually a film set encased in a great dome and populated with actors paid to keep up the ruse whenever they see him. In the end, Truman escapes, much to the disappointment of the executives running his life and to the delight of millions of viewers glued to their screens in the real world.

There's something profound to be said about that, isn't there? Truman longs to escape his fake world to visit the real one, where people obsess over his scripted existence. Perhaps the grass really is greener wherever you're not. The movie was a critical darling. On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics consensus reads, "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, 'The Truman Show' is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives."

As evidenced by its darling critical reception (per Rotten Tomatoes), "'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," about two wounded former lovers who undergo a procedure to erase each other from their own memories, simply has it all. Beautiful writing, direction, music, and cinematography. Nothing is over explained or underdeveloped. Every nook and cranny of this premise is explored, leaving the viewer just as touched and satisfied at the end of the movie as they were intrigued at the beginning. A better version of the story simply does not exist, making "Eternal Sunshine" not just a great film, but a perfect one.

But of course, Charlie Kaufman's screenwriting wizardry and Michel Gondry's heartfelt directorial touch would be nothing without the right leads. Kate Winslet gives one of her most underrated performances as Clementine, and Jim Carrey stars as timid, gentle Joel Barish. Both are excellent, but what makes Carrey's performance stand out is, well, how little he stands out. For once, Carrey isn't manic, loud, or making wacky faces. He's a disarmingly quiet, soft-spoken man carrying heavy emotional baggage. It's not a slight against him at all to say that his best performance in his greatest movie is the one least like his others. Time Out put it well: "the formidable Gondry/Kaufman/Carrey axis works marvel after marvel in expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind, and in allegorising the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart."