Son of the Mask

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The characters twirl around like mini tornadoes, but between random brash moments of technological eye-tickling, Son of the Mask sags more than it spins.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

In actuality, it's silly fun custom-tailored for reluctant young fathers and that entire clan of 20-something man-children who still read comic books and play video games, guys who do everything possible to resist the notion of adult responsibility.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

While not as edgy or funny as "The Mask," the popular 1994 "original" starring Jim Carrey, the movie offers eye-popping animation high-jinks and a warm-and-fuzzy story that reinforces what some would call family values.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A harried, screechy film that goes nowhere at a breakneck pace, full of sound and furious slapstick overkill but devoid of wit.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

At its heart is a deep, unresolved ambivalence about child rearing.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Even with a new leading man and a more family-friendly rating, some things never change: The Mask still stars Industrial Light & Magic.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What the filmmakers missed in assuming the mask from the earlier film is that it was Carrey's astonishing physical comedy that made that film a hit, not the animation.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What we basically have here is a license for the filmmakers to do whatever they want to do with the special effects, while the plot, like Wile E. Coyote, keeps running into the wall.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Lacks "spark."

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Most of the animated sequences, capably mixed with live action, leave a bad aftertaste, particularly when the ultimate fate of one beaten and battered human bystander after another is left callously unresolved. In other words, parents beware.

Variety Brian Lowry

The net result is a truly numbing experience.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Too low-key and amiable to match the lubriciousness Jim Carrey brought to the original.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A comedy so unfunny, it's tragic.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Doing a sequel to "The Mask" without Jim Carrey sounds like a really bad idea. As Son of the Mask proves, it is.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Cumming's antic acting is the only asset of this boisterous comedy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Little kidniks with an appetite for zap-pow silliness might find this to their liking. Everyone else, beware.

USA Today Mike Clark

Icky and incompetent (special effects aside) in equal parts, this groaner makes 1994's "The Mask" look like something you'd study in a film graduate course at NYU.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

S-s-s-smokin'? Hardly, this sequel to the 1994 Jim Carrey flick "The Mask" should have been snuffed out in the drawing room.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

It's astonishing how dull a movie that packs so much visual overstimulation into its frames can be.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Loud, mean-spirited and generally obnoxious, Son of the Mask makes the boisterous 1994 original look downright demure and refined.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

One presumes the only thing worse than making this disaster is actually watching it; wouldn't wish either on anyone.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

At its least intolerable, the movie is a fatherhood freak-out.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

But for anyone who assumed Kennedy's experiment couldn't sink any lower than "Malibu's Most Wanted," there are, it appears, ever deeper depths in the realm of comedic misfires.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

An irredeemable mess, a computer-animated Punch and Judy show without wit, heart or a single memorable performance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

No doubt extensive market research shows that there's an audience out there for movies like Son Of The Mask, but it's too depressing to speculate who that might be.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A witless and vulgar sequel.