Why so [not] serious?
For a good long while, Jim Carrey had put his goofy, larger-than-life characters on the shelf. The comedic madness of his Ace Ventura or The Mask era? A thing of the past. Carrey wanted to be a serious artist.
Then came Sonic the Hedgehog—a franchise that didn’t need to be more than a nostalgia-fueled cash grab. And yet, it’s better than it has to be.
And it gave us the return of Full-Silly Jim Carrey. And it’s a lot of fun.
As Dr. Robotnik, his mustache-twirling, eyebrow-waggling antics are vintage Carrey, perfectly in sync with the amusement park energy of Sonic. It reminds you why he became a household name in the first place.
What makes his return to this kind of comedy so satisfying is how unapologetic it is. Carrey doesn’t hold back or try to ground Robotnik in realism—he goes big, bold, and unhinged. Carrey’s willingness to embrace silliness is refreshing and welcome in an era when so many performances feel calculated or overly self-aware.
The Sonic trilogy doesn’t reinvent cinema, but it doesn’t need to. Its secret weapon (besides the last-minute rework of the titular character before the original film’s release) is Jim Carrey, cutting loose in a way we hadn’t seen in years. If this is the kind of fun he’s bringing back, we’re here for it.