Cameron Diaz walking into that bank was quite the revelation to nine year old me back in '94 🤣

@xaosbob

2 ай бұрын

I was 23, but...yeah.

@NelsonStJames

2 ай бұрын

@@latenightlogic He knows how old he was, I remember all the celebrities and entertainers, and even teachers that had the same effect on me when I was in single digits. People seem to have this misconception that little boys think about age gaps when they’re attracted to someone. I guess according to modern sensibilities I need to flog myself and make a public online apology for all the inappropriate thoughts I had about older women when I was a preteen back in the unenlightened olden days.

@mooxim

2 ай бұрын

@@latenightlogic I was 7yo in '94. Couldn't have been much older when I saw it on VHS. I felt it.

@JonLemerond1

2 ай бұрын

I remember a mother taking her little boy out of the theatre during Cameron's scenes... I still think she was nuts.

@dandywaysofliving

2 ай бұрын

I saw the movie later but yea 4-5 year old me felt a certain way during that scene too. . Didn't realize until later in life what it was but I knew I was attracted to her. . Being so young I understood I felt an attraction but didn't know how or what to do with those emotions. I knew sex was a thing but I was young and just wanted to grow up and be as cool/funny as Stanley/Jim Carrey.

One of my favorite scenes is Stanley encouraging Milo to jump up to get through the cell bars. Not only is it him being the goodest boy, it flips the initial scene of Milo's inobedience being a sign of Stanley's inability to make an impression onto others to Milo's desire to act according to his instinct being a helpful skill when used properly.

@ChrisGuerra31

2 ай бұрын

🤯

@schtuff.8207

2 ай бұрын

"Not the cheese, the keys!"

@pearce123456789

2 ай бұрын

​@@schtuff.8207put the cheese down.

@whochecksthis

2 ай бұрын

“That is one smart dog”

@nicholastosoni707

Ай бұрын

The best visual effect is when the guard stirs and Milo just _looks at him_ intently as if willing him to go back to sleep.

The original comic also claimed that there was an "other self" within each of us - but, unlike what the movie suggests, that persona is usually not a heroic one. The thesis of the comic is that even within a "nice" person there is a latent aggression that could erupt into anger, hatred, and sadism as soon as the conditions were right. And if one of these repressed people had unlimited power, and could do anything without fear of consequences, that person would quickly degenerate into a psychopath. In the comic, Stanley Ipkiss doesn't save the day; he becomes a deranged murderer. Instead, THE MASK implies that all enchanted masks do is enhance the evil of people who were evil to begin with. Dorian Tyrell was a vicious bastard - and didn't try to hide it - long before he even knew the Mask existed. But it's worth noting that before donning the green face, Dorian had at least some limits. He was rude and condescending to Tina, sure, but without the mask he would never have tried to kill her.

@NelsonStJames

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, that's actually a much more interesting and deeper take, but not one that would have necessarily made for a hit film.

@weirdTedE91

2 ай бұрын

Dorian might have killed her without the mask to be honest. She'd have known to much and if he got paranoid or found out the cops had been leaning on her, he might have taken her out to protect himself. But that's a different story.

@nicholastosoni707

2 ай бұрын

The sole difference between the movie and the comic is Milo. Without Milo to give him something good to care for and humanize him, Movie!Stanley would almost certainly have ended up like Comic!Stanley.

@viscountrainbows2857

Ай бұрын

I liked the one Mask that tried to become a Rockstar, didn't kill anybody, and got performance anxiety so bad he was booed offstage and took it off later like "Nah it ain't for me" 😹 A nice little break in the tearing destruction the Mask caused in literally everyone else's possession at some point

@Daemonworks

Ай бұрын

Yeah, it's a corrupting influence, and often an incredibly rapid and lasting one, where you go from just wanting a bit of respect to mass murdering your way around the city within days, if not hours. The Mask offers power and freedom, but the power and freedom of an uncaring god with neither morality nor impulse control. A particularly rough psychotic break with super powers. Then you take it off and you're back to being a frail little meatsack with a squishy little brain that took a massive hit to everything that was holding it together. Most folks who wear the mask and don't end up dead within a few pages end up needing a lifetime of therapy to recover from it.

As a kid I love the movie cause of the cartoon stuff and didn’t notice much else. As an adult I love the Peggy scenes. They do such a good job of setting her up as the “attainable” woman, and plays with the rom com trope of the girl next door you are legit expecting Stanley to end up with her. The weird thing is that ending up with the hot babe was at some point expected, but then that was cliche. The girl next door ending was then done to counter it so much that IT became a cliche. So by going back to the original Hollywood ending and having the hero get the hot woman and driving off in the sunrise, we have subverted expectation by doing what would have been really obvious at one point.

@stereolove2771

Ай бұрын

Adding to your point, it is later revealed that Peggy was not really "nice". I liked how on this film the majority of the characters did have actual character, they were not just static caricatures.

If only one thing to take away from this very interesting analysis, it's that Cameron Diaz was truly a hot babe in the 90s!

@asuka_the_void_witch

2 ай бұрын

i crushed HARD on her when i was a little kid. and honestly, she never looked hotter than in this movie. the hair, makeup and outfits are perfect lol

@ChrisGuerra31

2 ай бұрын

She is our princess fiona 🤩

@akshayde

2 ай бұрын

Cameron Diaz is goated for the mask

@justjoe1071

2 ай бұрын

Truly an Angel.

@sabbathjackal

2 ай бұрын

The mask was her first big role.

I don't know, I think it's more straightforward and less problematic to see the Mask as a story about incorporating your Shadow in the Juengian sense. Neither the Mask nor "nice guy" Ipcus is really whole or fully realized without acceptance of both, and you get a person who is bound by moral concerns but also unfettered in going after personal desire.

I think philosophers have historically undervalued entertainment. Even if you know the reality, the magic of cinema is still really good for stress relief, with is a genuine necessity for making any actual progress or even being productive at all.

@lymphomasurvive

Ай бұрын

Plato understood its power.

@steyraug96

Ай бұрын

Most of the old fairy tales were morality lessons, too. Check out the original Cinderella as an example, the Wicked Stepdaughters paid a steep price for their attempted theft of Cinderella's place, and the stepmother didn't make out well, either, though she didn't have the same price to pay, unfortunately. Grimm's faery tales, too, had morals in them. You'll see another take on it in Unbreakable/Split/??? (Forgot the third one), where the legends are about real people, and there's a "secret society" that keeps everyone down as "normal humans." Quite lousy, in a sense, but Mister Glass talks about comic books as modern fairy tales, though he uses Heroic literature, but that's a cosmetic difference: Superman or Shazam as paragons of virtue, or Captain America (blatant propaganda, but meant as an inspiration for what we could become), or Batman (back when he was a detective, instead of DC's Toby Stark), were characters to aspire to, or inspire behavioral traits. Achilles was long forgotten by then .. few boys will aspire to being Christ, too, as the whole dying thing doesn't sound like fun. 😉 They'll take the self-sacrifice in smaller ways, of course, but as a heroic example, not so much. (Skip the theological, since the other heroes still have the self-sacrifice and they often put their lives on the line.)

Funny enough, the very fact The Mask successfully plays with and examines genuinely thoughtful psychological and philosophical concepts while truly having been created as "simple" entertainment is telling of something else. The the primary story writer for the film adaption of the comic was Mark Verheiden. Mark's bibliography covers a respectable variety of genre stories across comics, movies, and TV. There aren't a lot of really big ticket items, there, but one thing you could say about most of his work is this: it's clearly written and effectively structured for whatever kind of story it's trying to be. Part of the problem with a lot of popular entertainment is that it is, quite simply, terribly written by people who can't write - at all. For The Mask, it's clear Verheiden sat down and did the work to figure out what drove the characters, the themes in the story, and how everything should play out in a logical manner. And it's a very tight, efficient story. Together with good direction, it resulted in a fun film that can be examined seriously if one chooses to. But unfortunately hollywood has increasingly devalued writing. Writers have become mechanisms that exist just to put words in actors mouths. The order of the words doesn't even have to make much sense. It is why so many films increasingly feel hollow! There's no internal logic. Things just happen. (And not because the film is aiming for stream of consciousness.) Endings feel decided upon regardless of the steps that lead to them. (And it's a reason so many endings are increasingly the same ending. Films are now thought of as vehicles to move audiences from one movie in an endless franchise to the next. The hand-off must be the same every time to insure a smooth transition.)

@alexs7670

Ай бұрын

I noticed around 2012 that a lot of movies clearly began as a single setpiece (often meant to sell something) and the rest of the movie is jsut strung together to justify said setpiece. Don't misunderstand me here, film has always been a marriage of art and consumerism, it just used to be a functional marriage.

@linussutherland6624

9 күн бұрын

​@@alexs7670 interesting. Can you please give some exanples of movies you consider to be exhibiting this? Like a short list of some films and the single setpiece you think theu are built around?

"Go as yourself AND the Mask"

I don't see it as "Nice guys win". I see it as Stanley learns to stop being a nice guy.

@tedcoop4392

Ай бұрын

He's not the present-day "nice guy," he's a guy who's genuinely, honestly nice, currently known as a "good person."

"Dance of embrace and rejection" is a good line

A masksterpiece. I'll see myself out, now.

@theflowerhead

2 ай бұрын

I can't help but want to usually call something with Jim Carey a masterpiece. 😅

@Claego

Ай бұрын

That... is hard to say lol

Yes. YES! "That's correct, Wendy. We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking", Jim Carrey mockingly says before taking us on a tour de force that doesn't stop until the credits roll.

I've been missing these videos from Jared. Wisecrack was never the same after you left.

@cptkilgore

2 ай бұрын

Tell me about it. Wisecracks only concerns now are far left progressism and Right bashing.

@theflowerhead

2 ай бұрын

I still listen somewhat frequently and I like it but I would've liked them swapping. Jared is good. I liked this video though.

@TongueHead

2 ай бұрын

first time watching the new channel. thanks for your comment i almost didnt realise it was him lol.

@TheTomconroy

2 ай бұрын

His videos were what it watched

@enriquecabrera2137

Ай бұрын

​@@cptkilgoreI thought it was me thinking that. Guess it really did go downhill

There was a deleted scene where some Vikings were locking the Mask in a chest and then they buried it, Wish they would have been part of the opening scene of the film.

"The Mask 2, is in its own right, a masterpiece!" -Jared Bauer

Don’t you just love when you see an older movie under a fresh light?!

Fun fact. The mask is actually Lokis mask of Norse mythology. You can also see the chest they open at the start that it has a viking dude on the lid. I don't know enough about Norse mythology to know if Loki actually has a mask anything like this. I learned it from a podcast where they talk about God of War Ragnarök where a mask (that actually look like the mask in the movie) is an important plot device.

@steffurness

2 ай бұрын

Loki is a God of Mischief and Storytelling - both drives find great value in maskwearing. 🍻

@Val.Kyrie.

Ай бұрын

The Ben stein character mentions that it’s Loki.

@JulianCaesaro

13 күн бұрын

If you ever watched the second movie, Loki actually shows up in the movie

Diaz has never been as beautiful and alluring as in this film. Amy Yasbeck isn't bad either.

Best GOW Ragnarok prequel, ever. Atreus wanted to be Stanley.

I was watching this video thinking, "This sounds a lot like a philosopher I've been into". Then you mentioned that philosopher I've been into, and I was like "It all makes sense now".

@SunshineSuperstar

2 ай бұрын

If the "philosopher" you've been into is Slavoj Zizek then I feel very sorry for you! As far as I'm concerned, Slavoj is an absolute moron!

Like Willy Wonka, The Mask is one of those adaptations where the source material is made a lot less dark for the sake of the general audience, but the darkness is not excised completely. The Mask is corrupting, and while Stanley may have avoided being drawn im by it, it is not gone. It leaves room for a sequel, of course, but it's also the horror movie cliche of the monster not being dead.

It is the Wisecrack'15 quality content, right here. I haven't heard anything that in depth for years. Glad that you're peaking again, Jared.

Best Avengers prequel ever.

Hard work makes more of a difference if you have a good education and resources. Having a head start doesn't mean you shouldn't bother fishing the race. Self improvement is still a good thing even if you're already doing well

@ShinyAvalon

Ай бұрын

Exactly.

What an insightful review of one of my childhood favorite movies. Honestly.

These themes have been around forever, and the interesting thing is the protagonists of these stories always start out as the “nice guy” and they are always treated the same exact way by their society; interesting when you consider how our current culture actively attacks the whole concept of “the nice guy”. I’d recommend finding and listening to the OTR series Dimension X and the story “Child’s Play” , and even watch the original “Nutty Professor”. When you take all these stories together they say much more about our culture then our culture itself is willing to admit.

As a kid I watched this video so many times, over and over again that it's how I learned to use the VCR and when the tape eventually snapped from too much use, I made my parents buy me a new one!😂

Was not expecting the helpful synthesis of Žižek and the metamodern lens of film analysis that I was desperately craving to come from a video about the Mask. So happy to rediscover you and gonna go catch up on the whole back catalogue now thanks byeeee - Neil

Bro. The Mask is sooo fucking good. I grew up on the golden age of cartoons from grandpa and i was determined to be a cartoonist...John K's belief that true cartoons were dead and just made to sell toys to kids. Fueled this somewhat gatekeeping mind set.(yes John K.. the dude that im surprised didnt serve time. I was a kid) anyway i rememver when The Mask came out CGI was relatively new. To see them stretch and contort as if it was hand drawn. Blew my mind! The Cocobongo scene where he turns into the Wolf and Milos scenes were amazing. I hold this movie very high up there for how much influence it had on so much of my art/animation.

Quality content yet again.

I learn in life that truth isn't good enought. There isn't happiness in just truth, because life is just no fair. We have to believe in a sweet lies to make us find content in life. Of course taking this too far become toxic as well . Where we buried suffering of other to keep glamour illusion in tack. I guess what I saying is don't hate people that wear a mask of happiness.

The Mask is one of the greatest, most underrated comedies of the 1990s. Not a surprise from Jim Carrey. I never noticed just how much of a Tex Avery fan Stanley is. I never noticed the cartoon wolf toy. I think we can and should all forget The Return of The Mask.

Jared is back to the best video essays again and his voice is there with all the quality philosophical commentary.

watching this was like reading my favorite book - incredible consensus and amazing work ! you got a new (big) fan 👏

This was such a well thought and deep analysis about a movie that I would otherwise remember as a fun movie form my childhood. While I will not watch it again, because I want the memories to remain as they are... I appreciate the quality of your work and deeper messages I missed as a child 😊

❤❤ the way you write content and organize it is amazing and how you communicate the ideas is just thought stimulating

I would also like to add as you clearly missed, Cameron Diaz is a total smoke show in this movie…

@timhaldane7588

2 ай бұрын

Missed opportunity to say "sssssssssmokin'."

I've only just discovered your channel, but am glad to hear more of your analysis. I had watched Wisecrack in the past, and am glad to know you are still offering critiques.

I liked it when it came out I happened to have rewatched it recently and was pleasantly surprised that its humor was NOT cringy like you find some older movies when you rewatch it. I did not know Wisecrack stopped but I will follow you again dude. Your most thoughtful videos give other angles to look at things and tying these things to real world thought processes is a great hook.

But I suppose the lingering question is this - is all this to say that sincerity is impossible? Or, worse yet, that those who are sincere are rubes, duped into fully embracing their own fantasies at the expense of being blinded to reality? And if that's the case, then what value is there in any ideology, since an "ideal" can be neither achieved nor adhered to? Why even bother to try to reach the light, if we don't even want the darkness within ourselves to be exposed or quelled? For that matter, does cynicism always terminate into nihilism? 🤔

@JulianCaesaro

13 күн бұрын

It may if you start thinking about it too much. But then again, Jesus Christ has a way to break through the teeming vanity circles of life

What a deep analisys of this movie, thanks for sharing your toughts!

I loved this analysis thank you it was very pleasant to watch.

This video was amazing Jared!!

Gotta say, it’s always great to see one of my favorite childhood movies get reviewed with a fresh take on it. Something about the zaniness of it really caught my interest as a kid, and having to review it some years back as an assignment made it stand out even more. While I heard that the comic book series is dark, the movie seems like a video game in a way. A power fantasy, a way to test and try ‘’What if?’’ scenarios. Like Stanley going from being a dork to becoming someone who actually does try to be a hero. Like the mask was the benevolent realization that Stanley needed to go forward in life, and get past simple fantasy. 🧐 Honestly, it’s amazing. Glad that I didn’t have to have a mask to get that same push in life 😁

Man, your content is awesome, I really love your videos and analysis. Take care man.

Becoming somewhat jaded after spending my young adult years as a hopeless romantic has been quite the ride. I couldn't agree more with that ending synopsis.

Thank you Jared ! This was so random yet very poignant bc The Mask was my fav movie when I was 4 yrs old (my mom put it on the tv after school everyday for a year) and I continued to watch it up until middle school Just recently watched it a few months ago and thought “damn I had good taste even in pre k”

That whole "release the id" effect is why I could never let that thing touch my face. I'm not sure even I could comprehend what might come out of that.

I was having a hard time understanding your point for this video...but I think I found a way to make sense of it. It's like when someone overly criticizes a movie, TV show or story centric video game because of their love of the franchise and their want for it to be better than it is. Not sure if that's even remotely close to what you were talking about, but that's what I got out of it. Makes sense to me!

On the back there was a description about the movie about the mask destroying the main character, which i saw as the mask saving the main character

Great as always Jared. Any chanceof getting on Nebula?

9:10 there is a lot of studies about the reduction in anxiety from having stable income. Obviously not all worries but money helps up until stability is achieved.

I saw the movie in the theater (I'm THAT old), and several times since (recently with my 10 y/o son). I just had an interesting thought. What if Stanley is an unreliable narrator? What if the "mask" isn't a real thing, but a representation for some kind of Dissociative Identity that Stanley is exhibiting? The "cartoon" parts are all in Stanley's head, and he's really acting out real-world actions (violent, flirtatious, etc...). Thoughts?

Please, more of this!

I love the gift shop at the end of the ride

Mask was one of the VHS tapes I've watched dozens of times as a kid, along with the first Matrix. What a programming it was. Alluring and enchanting. Back then I could not apply much of critical analysis. Recently I've rewatched the mask and it was much harder to fall in love with it. Another movie I'm rewatching from time to time is Interstate 60 and the biggest gut punch was growing older than the main character and still finding valuable lessons in the movie

I recently watched it again and it still hits

Jared, may i ask: What is your take on the original material, The Mask comic?

This is the first video I've watched from you and it made me a subscriber. Very well articulated. Thank you.

A video about blade runner 2 would be amazing too... I am still cratching my head over that movie hahahah

If you watched The Mask or Ace Ventura, you've seen all Jim's characters in 90% of his movies and they were all just Fire Marshall Bill from In Living Color. The exceptions being The Number 23 , a drama and mostly serious movie, and the Doors movie he did where he went full method acting and stayed in character as Morrison. He's kinda like Adam Sandler and Will Farrell, one SNL style character in different movies.

I saw this in theatre as a kid. What a great movie.

Saw this one about a year ago n the pachuco scene hit different af this time around. Great movie

Wow, easy subscribe, I sure enjoyed your analysis.

I didn't know you had a channel, I've missed you so much

I had the VHS tape as a kid, I used to watch it everyday

I wasn’t expecting this topic. But I’m on board, Jared!

You and Garyx Wormuloid should get together to review movies. Kinda like Siskel and Ebert, but Human and Alien.

Wow. I came for the nostalgia, and stayed for the wonderfully eloquent rollercoaster ride that was your vocabulary and articulation!

I watched this again last year during a flight and felt there was something deeper. Glad you agree. Sidebar the mask is the god Loki in the movie

Love this movie. Lol yes the music dance scenes are the best. The scenes with Peggy seems to have been edited too much from what may have been original, for example: when Peggy said to her coworker that she’ll take care of Ramsey and he could go home to Clair seems like there were scenes that were cut. “Culture is not your friend”: you should do an episode on Terence Mckenna

I enjoyed the psychological analysis aspect of this video. Being able to reflect and understand oneself better is always interesting. I'd love a more in-depth segment based on 5:29 - 5:56 for a wider gamut of genres. Maybe with a segment for each genre on what disliking a genre might imply with this train of logic. For instance, I detest the whole horror/thriller/slasher genre. There's just no real tension. It's either a yes/no for if the characters live or not, and jumpscares got old real quick. What is it that people who absolutely love horror/thriller/slasher movies are getting out of it? And what of those of us who actively dislike said genres?

I will forever be in your debt, Jared. Your reasoning and wisdom have brought me knowledge in areas and places where I would have never thought to look in. We all wait eagerly for your videos. Thank you for your work.

I'm 36 years old. There is no movie I have watched more than The Mask. I was a child with a VHS tape back then playing it over and over on loop. Can't wait to see your analysis!

Wow, good job. I can tell that you put in a lot of effort into this video :).

I hadn't thought about that movie in years, but I remember loving it.

Change the incentive, change the world.

Nice, Chungking Express in the romance slot was a good choice.

I read the comics after a rewatch a few years ago and they're worth a look, they are just as interesting in my opinion.Me and this movie are the same age , its been a favorite since I was 4.

Lots of "silly" 80s and 90s movies were absolutely classics. One of my favs is the teenage mutant ninja turtles

Good movies are like Rollercoasters. It always felt like returning to reality in both scenarios.

"The SWAT team is opening in Vegas next week."

there was something primal that awoke on me when I watched this movie at 5 years old

Interesting analysis, though I don't think anyone on set or in the writers' room was thinking about any of this.

6:30 lol the button shone in there

pretty sure the radical chic phrase of this movie was "Nice guys finish last" (not first)

It's interesting the way that the comic delves into this as some other people have pointed out, implying that the mask offers people a chance to live out their power fantasies or presents itself as a shortcut for them to gain agency or control over their lives. But it's a corrupting influence no matter their personality or beliefs, and the longer people wear it, they are further consumed by the deranged and violent Big Head persona. Each new wearer tends to end out their story by getting rid of the mask, realising that they don't like what it makes them do. What then makes it interesting in later stories is how characters such as Lt Kellaway (very different to the movie) or Cathy (Stanley's girlfriend in the first story who later becomes her own character) get put into position where they have no other choice but to put the mask on and become Big Head in order to survive a situation. Ironically, these situations are often the consequences of the last Big Head rampage, someone looking for revenge or looking to take the mask for themselves.

I like these new looks at old "classics". Doesn't feel like too many movies these days have the same depth.

There's a scene where Dorian wears a photo of his boss like a mask. Like he wants to be him.

I was a kid so I never thought of this, the mask unleashes you but evetually without control you get into trouble. You need to strike a balance. That's pretty smart. Loved your perspective. ♡

We see the world around us as stories, the story of my grandfather, the story of my friend, the story of hockey, the story of Nike, stories that we tell ourselves we know pretty well, but actually we not so often know exactly every detail of every details that influenced this 'simulation' or 'instance' of life as this universe is, then we sometimes, don't understand fk all about ourselves or sometimes manage to get to an age we can tell ourselves (blindly) that NOW we know ourselves, but there is still more to discover, and the narrative we 'build' around this set of concepts, ideology, dreams and memories are all intertwined like threads of a rope, alone they merely mean anything but together, it seems you put a bunch of nothing together and you get something oo

Random, but appreciated

We need a Broadway adaptation of The Mask. If Back to The Future and Beetlejuice can do it, there's NO DOUBT IN MY MIND The Mask could do justice to its source material while simultainously making us forget *EVERY LAST DETAIL* about Son of The Mask...

i remember enjoying this as a kid

You're ignoring the circumstances of certain characters. In the Coming To America scene, she was angry at Eddie Murphy cause of the lie, not the money. In the final scene of the mask, it was about the audience seeing the character that had been subtly crapping on Stanley the entire movie get his comeuppance. In writing, especially in a comedy, when you have a character like this who's a thorn in the side of the main character, it's always best to have a payoff at the end. Let the reader or audience see them get theirs. We get a laugh in schadenfreude, and they may (or may not) learn a lesson.

I'm glad to find you again. I thought you took your money from Wisecrack and ran. Honestly, that channel has gone a bit downhill. I'm glad to see you doing the thing I liked watching you do.

Most people forget The Mask was based on a comic book.

Disco Elysium... Game that keeps playing it's disco inside of my rooms.

After finding out about the comic, now I wanna see an r-rated reimagining of the OG. I loved this movie as a kid and honestly still look at it fondly for what it is, prime Carrey and Cameron Diaz being... well Cameron Diaz. Though truly, I wanna see a Walter onscreen, preferably played by Ron Pearlman because he's definitely got the face for it 😼