This prick has no regard for public safety, let alone his own.
The greatest folly of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is that we’re supposed to see Ace Ventura as a good person because he loves animals. In actuality, he is, to quote Greg Kinnear in As Good as it Gets, “An absolute horror of a human being”. I know this is a controversial stance based on the fact Ace Ventura is a beloved character in our pantheon of fictional people, but hear me out.
1 – He Is Extremely Rude and Respects No One
I don’t use the word extremely lightly. He mocks pretty much everyone. He invades people’s personal space, like gnashing his teeth in right in the face of the doorman he besmirches with the name “Captain Stubing”. He then exposes chewed food in his mouth to party guests, and terrifies the host about being a lawyer specializing in taking money from rich people for food poisoning at parties – all this after promising not to embarrass Monica Gellar…whose desk he littered with chewed up sunflower seeds because he has zero for respect for anyone except himself. This is just the tip of the iceberg with Ace.
The most egregious example is the way he treats his kindly old landlord. The film wants us to despise this man for having a problem with Ace Ventura for perfectly legitimate reasons like, you know, Ace not paying his rent. He also suspects Ventura for having animals in his apartment because that’s against the rules – this accusation is responded to by Ace literally slamming the door in his landlord’s face, coming a quarter inch away from breaking his nose. The truth? Ace has about 100 animals, many of them illegal to have as pets, like penguins, in his apartment; many animal rights activists would consider his hoarding of animals out of their natural habitats to be cruelty against animals, which he claims to detest.
Also consider the open scene where he impersonates a courier to gain access to the missing dog. Does he need to slap fragile on the package, act like a total buffoon for no reason as he breaks the contents more and more in front of others like a total buffoon? How does that help him get access to the dog? The answer is – it doesn’t. Ace Ventura just wanted to mock all couriers and mailmen and make them look utterly incompetent. Why? So he can feel better about the fact he can’t pay his rent. He’s a gigantic cock knocker.
2 – He’s Transphobic and Homophobic and Probably a Gay Man
Sure, this wasn’t a big deal in 1994 to mill comedy this way. But Ace takes this to the enth degree. He isn’t simply grossed out he kissed a man. He burns the clothes he was wearing, stops just short of gargling bleach, and uses a plunger to empty his stomach before crying naked in the shower.
Looks like deepthroating, ironically enough.
He also sexually assaults Lois later in the movie by trying to rip out her hair and then forcibly ripping off her clothes to show off her body in front of a bunch of men as punishment, and takes great glee in it.
This is the face of an unadulterated sociopath taking pleasure in the humiliation of others.
Now, I’m not one to decry the movie for having this content…it’s a product of the times. But that doesn’t mean the character doesn’t have some serious issues with his sexuality considering he later dresses like a ballerina, sexually harasses several men in showers and bathrooms, and plays with his asshole in front of other men who don’t want to see that. Deep down, he was more attracted to Lois Einhorn upon learning she was really Ray Finkle because deep down I’m pretty sure Ace Ventura is homosexual. Just look at how he dresses and how flamboyantly he acts.
So gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
3 – He Hates the Mentally Ill
He not only dresses up like a ballerina to pretend he’s mentally ill, but he acts like not like he’s mentally ill, but severely mentally handicapped, which are not the same thing, to infiltrate a mental hospital. This also goes hand in hand with the transphobia above since Ray Finkle is clearly mentally ill and while I’m not saying the film is saying transsexual people are all insane, Ace Ventura definitely seems to think so. Ace doesn’t miss a chance to make fun of Ray/Lois for their mental illness or gender dysphoria either, something which we’re supposed to see as heroic.
That's see that socially destructive stigma again...in instant replay!
He’s also overly patronizing to Ray Finkle's delightful mother who is clearly suffering from some form of dementia. What an asshole.
4 – He’s Unnecessarily Annoying and Mean-spirited At All times
We’re supposed to dislike Lois Einhorn, before it’s revealed she’s a murderous transsexual mental patient bent on revenge, because she doesn’t like or respect Ace Ventura. The truth is…who would? No one in the film seems to actually like Ace, except his animal rights hacker buddy. Even his cop friend seems utterly annoyed him at every turn as Ace pretends his ass is another life form with a lot to say (maybe he wasn’t pretending to be severely mentally handicapped to get into that hospital…) and looks ready to strike Ace down at any moment.
Imagine you're trying to do some paperwork for your job and a guy starts playing with his asshole a foot away from you. Not cool, right?
Sgt. Aguado doesn’t like Ace and we’re supposed to dislike him…but Ace also has no respect for the police, or any authority for that matter, and constantly belittles them at all times. He also makes fun of Aguado’s penis size, says his wife sleeps around on him, and body shames him constantly. We’re supposed to see Ace’s disdain for Aguado as a reaction to Aguado not respecting Ace, but I think it’s the other way around. Aguado is the real hero of this film.
And then we have Monica Gellar, who Ace clearly doesn’t respect. I mentioned the sunflower seeds earlier, but then he constantly insults her, calls her stupid, mansplains to her (and other women) constantly, calls Monica overly emotional, ugly, fat (a few times), and says her dog is miserable because she’s a piece of shit. Somehow, she still falls for him. This is the same problem I had with Joey Lauren Adam’s character in Big Daddy: no intelligent, self-sufficient woman would ever fall in love with Ace Ventura, let alone want to share a room with him for any length of time...at least Adam Sandler didn’t call Joey saddlebags and treat her like an invalid.
This guy should have checked into Shady Acres for real. He needs a lot of medication, shock treatment, and an assload of psychoanalysis.
As a bridging criticism of Ace Ventura to my final point, let’s bring up the ending sequence where Ace beats up the Philadelphia Eagles mascot (who for some reason is drinking the Miami Dolphins water at their bench…which is just a filmmaking oversight). Why? They make it seem like it’s because the mascot cost Ace $25,000 by shooing the pigeon, but all the mascot did was shoo a pigeon, which everyone does. The real reason? Because the mascot said “blow me” and the trauma from Ray Finkle’s gun digging into his hip was too strong and the transphobic closeted homophobic rage just exploded.
Look kids! The hero is committing criminal assault in front of 80,000 people, on a guy dressed like an endangered species the hero claims to love! Be like Ace! Also don’t forget to use chloroform on strangers and sexually harass men in the shower by whipping them with a towel and stare at their dicks at the urinal and then call women you want to bang ugly fatties and assault people for shooing a pigeon you want to imprison for profit.
Good Guy 101 - How to Assault Innocent People in Broad Daylight and Get Away With It
5 – Ace Ventura is a FRAUD
That’s right, I said it. He’s a total fraud. You wanna fight about it?
He claims to love animals and shows disdain for billionaire Camp for collecting a bunch of exotic and endangered fish. Yet, as I said, he strips from their natural environment and hoards them, forcing them to live in a shitty, cramped apartment…animals that he can’t even afford to feed. He literally yells at them that he can’t afford to feed them as if it’s their fault for reminding him that he’s dooming them to starvation.
Ace Ventura posing joyfully with his unknowing victims.
The main throughline for Ace is him trying to catch that missing rare albino pigeon. Of course, the bird (unless it’s an invasive species, which I don’t think it is since it’s just albino) is in its natural habitat outside. Ace wants to trade that bird’s freedom for $25,000 dollars so someone can lock it in a cage. The same goes for Snowflake The Dolphin who is forced to live in a little tank and perform humiliating tricks, tricks Ace finds quite amusing. Does Ace plan to rescue snowflake from being kidnapped and imprisoned and free him? No, he wants to take snowflake away from his captors and give him over to his original captors who will force him to perform against his will, for profit.
Ace Ventura is one of greatest frauds in the history of cinema and you all fell for it.