OK, so it's alright, BUT...
Now, I am a very big fan of the comics that this movie was based on. However, I am giving this movie a three star review(which I conceive as moderately generous in many respects). I actually enjoyed this film when I saw it many years ago and still enjoy it to this day. Had it not been for this flick, I would have never read the comics.

Obviously, the first point to make is that the character of Stanley in the movie is a quite a bit different from the comic. In the comic book, Stanley is much more vindictive and vengeful than anyone in their right mind should be, but after being picked on for so long, who can blame him? He does the same payback thing to the car repair men as in the movie, but in the book he actually kills them, which is where the movie differs greatly. The comic is much more dark. Stanley, in the comic, takes advantage of the mask's powers and gets back at all the people that wronged him in his past experiences (teachers, bullies, etc) and does "eccentric" things to them. I won't ruin the whole story of the mask (for those that are still interested in reading the comic), but the mask changes hands, and those that come to possess it have the same problems controlling it as those before. Stanley's girlfriend has it, as does the police lieutenant (which happens to be better stories than the Stanley storyline, in my opinion) and many of the jokes in the movie derive from these plot lines.

You see, the comic is much more an adult themed story. It gives the reader a sense of escape in that Stanley is able, due to the mask, to get back at all the people that wronged him in his real life, which is what so many of us want to do. How many of us have had a nagging boss or a bitchy teacher that we just wanted to get back at in terrible ways, but aren't allowed to due to societies' rules? That is what gives the comic its appeal; it shows us that our petty childhood grudges can be reversed upon the people that we felt did us harm. It is a way of "sticking to the man" that we would never be able to do in the real world. It is escapism at its best.

But, then there is the movie. I can see why the producers went for the theme that they did. The storyline of a vindictive loser who constantly gets the short end of the straw finally having the opportunity to get back at his social attackers in grotesque ways doesn't exactly have a market place in recent mass-media culture. So what do you do? You make the character a superhero and appeal to multiple ages! The guy gets back in minor ways to the bullies he has had to face, but ends up using his newfound powers to benefit a better good and ends up with the gorgeous Cameron Diaz in the end. How moral!

I feel that Jim Carrey was a good choice for the character, but the film just had it's weak points (as so many have pointed out in previous reviews). The movie is great in that it has many joke elements from the original comic, but it dumbs it down for a more politically correct and younger generation. Unfortunately, the original charm of the comic is lost due to this.

I was fortunate enough to see the movie at a young enough age that it turned me on to the comic and I ended up loving both the comic and movie for their merits. However, the fact remains, years later in my life, that the movie is sub-par to the comic, and unless they make an R-rated movie based solely on the comic, this movie will always be a poor adaptation to a great graphic novel.

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