Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 26, 2019

Sony has released 'Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,' the sequel to the quasi-classic 1994 Jim Carrey Comedy blockbuster 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,' to Blu-ray as part off its pressed MOD (Manufactured on Demand) line. The film (and its predecessor) was previously released by Warner Brothers on September 3, 2013 to good reviews for its audio and video presentations. The old Warner Brothers disc contained no extras beyond a trailer, which is the only supplement included on this Sony disc. I did not review, nor do I own, the Warner Brothers Blu-ray, so I cannot conduct a direct comparison. Instead, find below fresh audio and video reviews for this Sony release.

When Ace Ventura (Carrey) loses a raccoon to heights and gravity in a scene that parallels the famous opening of Cliffhanger (which released 2.5 years prior), he retreats to a Tibetan monastery. He is given renewed purpose in life when he is approached by a man named Fulton Greenwall (Ian McNeice) who asks the famed "Pet Detective" to travel with him to the fictional African country of Nibia. There, Ventura is tasked with tracking down a white bat named "Shikaka." Tracking down the bat could mean great healing for two warring tribes. But not only is Ventura fearful of bats, his antics and theatrics could very well be his undoing as he finds himself facing down various African warriors who don't necessarily know what to make of him.

It's not as if either Ace Ventura film is a bastion of creative storytelling. The plots featured in both films are simply shells for Carrey to do his thing, and Carrey is all that really carries this sequel. The story lacks dramatic value but Carrey takes every situation, scenario, place, and person placed in front of him and works his magic on them, honing a schtick that he introduced in the first film and that is here unmistakably familiar yet still somehow fairly fresh, even if he's doing nothing more than regurgitating those physical theatrics and verbal antics he established in the original. Like he was in Pet Detective, he's at the top of his game here, saving a film that is otherwise nothing of consequence through sheer force of comic timing, talent, and will. He's the only reason to watch and he's reason enough.

For a full film review, please see Michael Reuben's writing for the 2013 release here.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony's pressed MOD (manufactured on demand) Blu-ray release of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls delivers a healthy, quality image. It's impressively natural and filmic, maintaining a light grain structure for the duration. Details are firm and revealing, with its basics like skin and clothes finding a high level of visible sharpness and intimacy while various locales, from African villages to brick exteriors, are all impressively complex and intimately revealing. If there's a downside to the transfer, it's that colors are not extremely well saturated. There's a feel for slight fading and dullness that permeates much, but not all, of the film. The palette generally lacks life, and even would-be dense natural greens generally appear fairly dim and uninteresting. Skin tones appear slightly pasty and black levels are mildly elevated. None of these are transfer-destroying flaws that ruin a viewing, though. This is a very watchable image on the whole and fans will appreciate the filmic texturing if nothing else. As for source or encode flaws, there are a couple, notably the odd print speckle and pop and a few examples of trace edge halos, mostly around objects (like human heads) which appear against high contrast areas. Otherwise, this one's fairly good to go, mostly held back by that lacking color and contrast but propped up by the generally filmic and enjoyable texture.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls was previously released by Warner Brothers with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 lossless soundtrack. Sony's offering is of the same encode but adds in a ".1" subwoofer channel. Sony's offering is little shallow at calibrated reference volume. Bumping it up about 4 db yields a fuller, more robust listen. The track maintains a fairly front-dominant posture. Surrounds are not excluded, but they are not included with regularity or aggressive usage, either. Musical delivery is adequately rich and detailed, presenting with a fine front side stretch, whether considering various popular tunes or score. Natural ambience is nicely defined and well integrated, though again hanging around the front side, primarily. The track finds some juice and depth partway through by way of some tribal beats that fold in some low end support but don't expect the subwoofer to get its most intense workout ever; it's a complimentary tool at best and practically sonically invisible for much of the movie. Basic ambient effects and a few more robust and sonically interesting action-type effects play with more than suitable clarity and stage presence, but again, the bulk remains up front. Dialogue is the primary sonic component for most of the film, and the track presents Carrey's vocal inflections quite nicely.

Note that this Sony release does away with the various alternate language options that were included with the Warner Brothers disc. It also drops a Portuguese subtitle option.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls contains only the film's theatrical trailer (720p, 4x3, 2:00). Such was all that was included on the older Warner Brothers disc. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is not as funny as its predecessor, but it garners more than enough laughs thanks primarily to Carrey's performance, which sees the actor at the top of his physical and verbal comedy game. The story around his work is slapdash at best. It's entirely dismissible in the moment and forgettable after the fact at worst. Sony's Blu-ray is featureless beyond the trailer. Video and audio are nothing special but hardly egregious, either. Only recommended for fans who missed the Warner Brothers disc the first time around.