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Ace
Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
This infantile-minded comedy sequel from director Steve
Oedekerk - Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) - followed
after Jim Carrey's earlier first hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
(1994); the year before this film, Carrey scored with
the comic-book, supernatural action film The Mask (1994) with
great special effects, and the hilarious gross-out Dumb and Dumber
(1994).
Both Ace Ventura films suffered from
poor scripts, but had numerous wacky comedy moments from the rubber-faced,
outlandish comedian. In this sequel with non-stop physical comedy,
facial mugging, low-brow slapstick and sight gags, Ace - a parody of
heroic Hollywood adventurers - engaged in another search - for a sacred
great white bat ("Shikaka") amongst warring tribes in Africa's
fictional nation of Nibia.
- the film's opening credits sequence was a dramatic
spoof of Cliffhanger (1993); in the Himalayas, pet detective,
animal sleuth and expert zoologist Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey), wearing
lederhosen, and with his pet Capuchin monkey Spike in a sack at his
waist, was on a rescue mission after a plane wreck in a mountainous
Himalayan area; a raccoon needed to be saved after it had escaped
from its cage; during a mid-air recovery effort as Ace dangled from
a rope above a cavernous valley, he tragically failed when his gear
snapped and the raccoon (holding on to Ace's hand) fell to its death
Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey)
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Regurgitating Into a Baby Bird's Mouth in a Nest During Rescue Effort
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With His Pet Capuchin Monkey Spike
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Opening Credits (Cliffhanger Parody)
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- Ace attempted to recover from the botched pet rescue,
and his failed pet detective job by meditating with Tibetan monks
in a remote monastery ("He came to us a broken man. He had
lost the will to sustain his existence") where he was attempting
to attain his meditative goals; meanwhile, British correspondent
Fulton Greenwall (Ian McNeice) arrived at the monastery searching
for ex-pet detective Ace, who was identifed thusly: ("He bends over
and speaks from his rear")
- Greenwall requested for Ace to perform services for him, to search
for "a lost animal" (a stolen albino bat), for a reward of $20,000
dollars; Ace quickly changed his mind about remaining at the monastery
after being vigorously encouraged by the master Ashram Monk (Arsenio
'Sonny' Trinidad) to leave, now that he had attained: "omnipresent
super-galactic oneness"; the monks wildlly and drunkenly celebrated Ace's departure
- before leaving the monastery and a life of contemplation, Ace
directed a Slinky toy down a lengthy series of stone steps from the
ashram - he missed "some kind of a record" when the Slinky stopped
one step from the bottom
- during the plane ride to Africa (to
the fictional African country of Nibia), Greenwall explained how the
"lost animal" was a sacred animal
of the native Wachati tribe, and that their village was now thought
to be cursed; there were escalating tensions between two tribes - the peaceful Wachati and the warlike
"bloodthirsty" Wachootoo; the rare missing animal was the dowry to
be offered by the Wachati Princess who was about
to wed the Wachootoo Prince; if the sacred animal
was not recovered, the Wachati tribe would be slaughtered
- while driving in a Jeep in Nibia, Africa
with Greenwall toward the British consulate, they passed an unexpected
Subway sign, and Ace began singing spontaneously: "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang" as he took a detour with the Jeep through the dense
forest and splashed into a river; he perfectly maneuvered the Jeep
into a vacant parking spot outside the consulate by rolling it over
and bragging he had perfectly parked: "Like a glove!"; he then
added: "You might wanna think about getting this baby detailed"
Subway Sign in Africa
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Smashed Up Jeep Parked "Like a Glove" at the British
Consulate
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British Consul General Vincent Cadby (Simon Callow)
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Ace Insulting Snooty High Society British Consul General
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Another Target of Ace's Insults: A Pompous Woman With
a Fox Fur Wrap and Her "Monopoly Guy" Husband
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The Disruptive Ace Making Shadow-Puppets in a Projection Room During an Expedition
Briefing
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- inside the consulate, Ace sized up the stuffy and
snooty British Consul General Vincent Cadby (Simon Callow) as a "workaholic"
who had purchased his fake Cartier watch on the N. African black
market, and was too busy to take care of business during urination:
"The urine stain on your pants would signify that you're a single-shake
man! Far too busy for the follow-up jiggle"; Ace was introduced
to Burton Quinn (Bob Gunton) with a black raven named Tinky on his
shoulder - he was the owner and operator of the Quinnland Safari
Park
- at the foot of the mansion's stairs, "activist" Ace
also targeted insults at a pompous high-society wife (Kristin Norton)
with a fox fur wrap, who was being escorted by her bald and skinny
husband dubbed the "Monopoly Guy" (Michael Reid MacKay):
"That's quite a wrap you're wearing. Perhaps I could get you
some fluffy new slippers made from the heads of innocent and defenseless
baby seals!"; Ace also insulted the "Monopoly Guy" husband:
("Thanks for the Free Parking") before punching him out,
carrying the unconscious man on his shoulders, and then dismissing
him: "Do
not pass Go! Do not collect $200!"; he then deposited him back
in his wife's arms
- Ace was instructed about his expeditionary mission
during a briefing in a projection room, where he was shown slides
of Derrick McCane (Thomas Grunke), a game hunter of "rare
and endangered species" - and two Australian poachers:
Mick Katie (Andrew Steel) and aborigine-raised Gahjii (Bruce Spence);
Cadby announced the urgency of their expedition because the two tribes
were on the verge of war: "This wedding's in four days. I cannot
have bloodshed here!"; Ace disrupted
the session by making lewd shadow puppets in the light; also after
entering a Trophy Room, evidence that Cadby was an avid trophy
hunter, Ace freaked out and screamed that it was "a lovely
room of death"
- once Ace arrived at the bat cave, he was shocked to
find that he was on an expedition to find a rare white bat - a sacred
tribal animal; it was unusual that Ace was commissioned on the search
because he had a fear of bats; he acted out his
fear: "What bat?...You didn't say anything about a bat!...Have you ever seen bats?
They're hideous. Lifeless, beady eyes, clawed feet, huge grotesque wings.
Even fangs. They give you rabies, you know....As a being of light, I
must show compassion for all the living things of nature... I'm not touchin'
it, though! No, spank you"
- during a visit to a peaceful Wachati tribal African
village, Greenwall and Ace met with the tribal Chief (Damon Standifer),
who took a liking to Ace (by spitting in his eye); he was also spit
on by the chief's son Ouda (Maynard Eziashi); Ace returned their
affection by showering them with his own mucus-filled spit: ("It
is the mucus that binds us")
- Ace and Greenwall were reminded by the Wachati chief
that unless the "great white bat" was returned before the
Princess' marriage, the tribe would be slaughtered; unbeknownst
to Ace, the stolen bat was a Great White bat known as 'Shikaka';
one of Ace's jokes was that upon the utterance of the bat's name
'Shikaka', the native tribespeople would bow down; Ace tried to trick
two natives into bowing by mentioning similar names, such as "Shikasha," "Shishkebab," "Shawshank
Redemption," and "ShicaaaaGO"
- Ace watched the Wachati Princess (Sophie Okonedo)
perform "the virgin's dance of seduction" (a belly-dance)
for the tribe and then met privately with her, when she expressed
doubts about not pleasing her future bridegroom: ("I am worried
I will not please him. I've never known a man"); Ace volunteered
to help the seductive maiden and they touched tongues, but then he
claimed he had vowed to follow a life of celibacy; she dropped her
clothes to assist in his decision; he stared directly at her bare
breasts (out of view off-screen) but then declined: ("Those
are very nice. But I am a child of light. A pure spirit. I am no
longer encumbered by the appetites of the flesh"); shortly later,
it was implied that Greenwall caught Ace masturbating, but he claimed
he was repeating his mantra and meditating
- on his own with a flaming torch, Ace fearfully entered
into the sacred bat cave and threw his ashram's cross-medallion into
the darkness, screaming: "Take that, you winged spawn of Satan!";
he suspected that Quinn was involved after finding a black feather
from Quinn's raven inside the cave, before rushing out
- as a "master of disguises," to the tune of Blues Traveler's
"Secret Agent Man," Ace surveilled Quinn inside his Safari Park,
where he also joined lions feasting on a dead zebra: (Ace: "Eat up,
guys! None of this animal goes to waste")
- in order to spy on Quinn who was involved in the
theft of the great white bat, Ace hid in an animatronic rhinoceros
("I'm just a curious little rhino") to overhear his conversation with
game hunter McCane - and then discovered that the rhino's cooling
system had failed: ("Kinda hot in these rhinos...Warm"),
forcing him to strip completely naked and squeeze himself out of
the mechanical rhino's birth canal in order to get out - in full
view of a group of shocked American safari tourists who thought they
were witnessing a rhino birth! ("Oh, look! The mother rhino is giving birth!")
- after Spike zapped Quinn in a room with many stolen,
caged animals, the bat thief was bound and questioned by Ace under
bright lights, and also threatened with a knife: ("Where is
that darn bat?"); Ace also tortured Quinn by poking at his own
eyeball, prompting him to confess that he had exchanged money with
McCane: "I
paid Derrick McCane to find the bat. I thought it could be an attraction.
Business has been a bit off lately" -
it was obvious that Quinn nor McCane were the original bat
thieves
- Ace was shot with many poisoned red blow-darts and
passed out; he awoke in the care and company of the Princess and
Greenwall; the Princess and Greenwall told him (inaccurately) that
the blow-darts shot at him were ID'd as darts from the
Wachootoo medicine man/shaman-witch doctor (Danny Daniels), who openly
objected to the inter-tribal marriage between the Princess and the Prince and wanted war
- Ace attempted to sneak into the Wachootoo
tribal village with hopes of finding the bat, but he was captured
at sword point; he was thought to be a "White
Devil" ("Equinsu Ocha"), reinforced when Wachita tribal
Prince Ouda (Maynard Eziashi), the chief's son translated his pacifist
words as hostile (in subtitles): ("I come in peace" -- "I
will harm you",
and "The last thing we want is a fight. War is hell" -- "I
want to fight, so go to hell")
Ace Shot with Red Poisonous Blow-Darts
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Ace Captured in the Wachootoo Village
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The Wachootoo Medicine Man/Shaman (Danny Daniels) - Calling Ace a
"White Devil"
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- Ace faced various trials and challenges including
walking across hot coals, and ejecting a baby from a pregnant female's
belly; then the Wachootoo Chief (Sam Phillips) affirmed, through
Ouda, that Ace's final test was a "Circle of Death" challenge
- a dueling fight with the Wachootoo tribe's short statured tribal
champion, the Tiny Warrior (also Tommy Davidson), who jumped out
of a small backpack worn by a much larger warrior: (Ace (astonished): "This
is it? I have to beat him?...Allrighty, then! I must tell
you. I do not wish to fight you. Violence is no longer in my nature,
but if you want it, you got it, sister")
After Passing All Tests But One
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(l to r): Wachootoo Chief and Ouda
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The Tiny Warrior in a Backpack
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"Allrighty, then!"
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Ace's Battle with the Tiny Warrior of the Wachootoo
Tribe, Who Emerged From a Small Backpack - Ace Was Bitten in the
Fist and Speared in Both Legs
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- when Ace went to punch the Tiny Warrior, he was bitten
in the fist, and he exclaimed: "Biting, I see. I was unaware
that the Wachootoos were biters!"; then, Ace who was clearly
losing the fight taunted the warrior: "I'll
have you know I have the reflexes of a cat. And the speed of a mongoose.
Throw it! I dare ya!" but then was speared in the upper right
thigh; and then, after being speared in both legs, he cried out: "It's in the bone, it's in the
bone" and fell down, causing the natives and the Chief to laugh
out loud at his humiliating defeat
- due to Ace's entertaining performance,
the native Wachootoo tribesmen and Chief released him, explained by
Ouda: ("He says you make him laugh. You are like sissy girl!
Wachootoo Chief say, 'You friend to Wachootoo.' But if the curse
of Shikaka not lifted by tomorrow's sun at top of sky, Wachootoo
kill all Wachati and smash your head on a rock"); as Ace left
the village, he was shot again in the buttocks with another red blow-dart
- but he realized that this recent dart carved from a mimosa tree
was different than the ones shot at him earlier; the other ones had
been constructed from a reddish fungus (known as acalla) by the two
bat poachers from Australia; this discovery led Ace to understand
that the Wachootoo tribe hadn't taken 'Shikaka' - the Great White
Bat - instead, the bat thieves were the two Down-Under poachers
- Ace had only a limited amount of time, until the next
day at noon, before war would be declared between the two tribes; after
locating the poachers' shack where the stolen bat was caged, Ace
mimicked the sounds of a big, amorous female silverback gorilla to
distract them; as they left their shack to go hunt for the valuable
gorilla, Ace attempted to retrieve the bat, but they quickly returned, captured
Ace and attempted to kill him by tying him to a raft and sending
it over a waterfall with his pet monkey Spike; after surviving that
peril, he also had to wrestle a Nile crocodile, and rode it like
a bucking bronco
- to solve the mystery of the bat theft, Ace began to
consider the motive for the theft of the bat: ("There's something
I missed. Some clue or motive I've overlooked...Someone wants the
tribes to destroy each other. There must be something valuable in
this equation...What is it the Wachati possess that is of great
value to other men - besides the Princess with the amazing rack?");
he deduced that the key to the mystery was bat guano in the cave,
after he consulted with
the Ashram Monk at the Tibetan monastery via astral projection
- he returned to the British consulate to confront Consul
General Vincent Cadby and Greenwall about the corporate plot that
they had orchestrated; it appeared that if the two tribes
destroyed themselves, that would allow Cadby to legally gain
access in the area to guano (bat-poo)-rich caves to financially
benefit by selling the white powder as fertilizer: ("And you
want that dukie so bad, you can taste it"); Ace added a religious
component to his revelations: ("The day of redemption is at
hand! Repent! And thou shall be saved"); he also realized that
Cadby had used him as a scapegoat for his own crimes, and would
blame Ace for stealing Shikaka: ("You were my alibi to prove
I'd done everything I could to stop it"); his other co-conspirators,
the two Australian poachers, also entered the room - with the caged
Shikaka
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Ace Confronting Cadby With His Conspiratorial Plot:
"Repent!"
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- although Ace was arrested by the brawny, black chief
of tribal security Hitu (Adewalé), he escaped by using 'animal
talk' to get the consulate's elephant to obey him before riding off
bareback; then, he summoned a whole herd of stampeding elephants
and other animals to demolish the walls of the British consulate
building and take over its interior: (Ace: "You see, humans
and animals can live in harmony!"); Greenwall switched sides
to aid Ace by punching out Cadby, while Ace sprayed and overpowered
the two poachers with potent stink from the backend of a skunk
- once Cadby regained consciousness, Ace was forced
to pursue Cadby's Land Rover (with the Shikaka bat in a cage) in
a monster truck, ending with Cadby's crash into a tree, causing the
bat cage to become damaged and lodged in the fork of the tree; then,
Ace mowed over the Land Rover with his truck; Ace overcame
his bat phobia and was able to retrieve and rescue the bat bare-handed
from the crushed cage
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Ace in Monster Truck in Car Chase After Cadby (with
the Bat)
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- Ace raced to the tribal villages with the bat flapping
in his hands, in order to return it in time to avert war before noon;
while Cadby fled on foot, he was caught between the two warring tribes
- who paused their imminent attack when Ace also appeared with the
bat between the rows of warriors: ("Coming
through. Clear a path, people!"); Cadby was exposed as the real "White
Devil"; he was pursued by both tribes and ultimately
grabbed by a real amorous silverback gorilla in the bushes
- the marriage between the Wachati Princess and the
Wachootoo Prince (revealed to be the Tiny Warrior) proceeded as planned,
and after they were pronounced to be "life partners," they retreated
to their marriage hut; however, moments later, the Tiny Warrior emerged,
complaining that the Princess was no longer a virgin (due to Ace
who had broken his vow of celibacy and deflowered her); the film's
last line of dialogue was Ace's question: "They can tell that?" -
both tribes of angry natives turned on Ace and chased after him once
again
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Ace's Failed Rescue of the Raccoon
Fulton Greenwall (Ian McNeice) at the Ashram Looking For Ace
Ace Meditating (Surrounded by Wild Animals) in Tibetan Monastery-Ashram
with Monks
Burton Quinn (Bob Gunton) - Safari Park Owner
Rare Game Hunter Derrick McCane Seen in Slide-Show
Two Australian Poachers - Seen in Slide-Show (l to r): Mick Katie and Gahjii
"A Lovely Room of Death" - An Animal Trophy Room
At a Bat Cave ("You didn't say anything about
a bat!") to Greenwall
The Wachati Tribal Chief
Ace Attempting to Trick Tribespeople to Bow Down: "Shishkebab"
Ace with the Virginal Princess
Ace Consuming Carcass of a Dead Zebra
Ace's Spectacularly-Funny "Rhino Birth"
Ace's Torture of Quinn - Eyeball Poking
Australian Bat Poacher Gahjii (Bruce Spence) Carving a Red Blow-Dart
From Acalla
The Bat Poachers' Cage Holding 'Shikaka' - The Great White Bat
Ace Tied to A Raft with Spike, Heading Toward a Waterfall
Ace Wrestling a Crocodile
Ace Practicing Astral Projection to Consult with the Ashram Monk to Learn the
Motive For the Theft of the Bat
All of Cadby's Co-Conspirators
Ace Preventing War Between the Two Tribes - With the Return of the Bat
After the Marriage Ceremony - Tiny Warrior: "She's not a virgin!"
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