Jim Carrey's 5 Best (and Worst) Movies From the '90s

It may be hard to remember now, but back in the 1990s, Jim Carrey was so huge that he became the first leading man in Hollywood to earn a $20 million fee for starring in a movie. Even though that movie was "The Cable Guy" -- a box office disappointment released 20 years ago this week, on June 14, 1996 -- the payday cemented Carrey's status as the king of 1990s movie comedies ... but he also proved his worth throughout the '90s in underrated dramas. Here's a look back at the best and worst Jim Carrey movies during the decade that made his career -- and nearly unmade it.

BEST: 5. 'Doing Time on Maple Drive' (1992)

Even while Carrey was in the first flush of TV fame as the MVP on Fox sketch comedy show "In Living Color," he proved his dramatic versatility for the network with a straight role in this Emmy-nominated TV movie. It's an "Ordinary People"-like drama about a family whose three adult children are cracking under the pressure of living up to their parents' idealized images of suburban domesticity. Carrey's the alcoholic dropout son; it's a stock role, but he's a revelation in it.

4. 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective' (1994)

Now that we live in a movie comedy world led by Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, and other impulsive man-children, it's hard to fathom how trailblazing and bizarre this performance seemed at the time. Carrey's animal-loving sleuth was dumb yet brilliant, belligerent yet sweet, nerdy yet cool, and casually adult yet relentlessly juvenile. Imagine Bill Murray's chill trapped in the spastic body of Jerry Lewis. It was an astonishing breakout, and it made Carrey a movie star.

3. 'Dumb and Dumber' (1994)

Now, that's commitment: Carrey removed the cap on his chipped front tooth to play doofus-supreme Lloyd Christmas in the film that put the Farrelly brothers on the map. It perfected Carrey's persona, introduced just 10 months earlier in "Ace Ventura," that mixed childlike sweetness and goofiness with slightly more grown-up naughtiness. The result was a comedy classic and Carrey's third blockbuster of 1994; has any star ever had a career-making year like that?

2. 'Man on the Moon' (1999)

Carrey looks nothing like Taxi" co-star and legendary comedian/performance-artist/prankster. Milos Forman's sensitive, funny biopic purports to show the man behind the act, though even that could be an elaborate put-on. In retrospect, it's hard to imagine a star other than Carrey who could have pulled it off.

1. 'The Truman Show' (1998)

Whether you enjoyed the film as a satire about television, a prescient warning about our surveillance society, or a religious allegory about man's place in the universe, you had to agree that Carrey was pitch-perfect as the unwitting subject of a 24/7 reality show -- funny when he needed to be, but restrained and effortlessly dramatic and poignant the rest of the time. Many viewers -- and Carrey himself -- felt he was robbed of an Oscar; indeed, he wasn't even nominated.

WORST: 5. 'The Cable Guy' (1996)

Carrey fans weren't ready for this dark satire about an aggressive sociopath who won't leave new pal Matthew Broderick alone. (It grossed $103 million worldwide, but that wasn't enough to recoup its steep budget and marketing costs.) Critics still argue over whether Carrey's uncompromising performance is brilliant or unwatchably irritating. Whatever points director Ben Stiller tried to make about male friendship, TV addiction, and our over-reliance on technology are buried beneath Carrey's grotesque shtick.

4. 'Liar, Liar' (1997)

Playing a weaselly lawyer forced by his son's birthday wish to tell the truth for 24 hours, Carrey does some brilliant physical comedy as a guy who's completely lost control of his own will, face, and bodily movements. Too bad it's in the service of a treacly story about a dad who realizes he needs to spend more quality time with his kid, an all-too-clichéd '90s movie premise. There's something sad about watching the guy who created Ace Ventura do the movie equivalent of birthday party clowning.

3. 'Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls' (1995)

This time, the pet detective goes to Africa (though the film was shot in South Carolina) to find a missing sacred bat and prevent a civil war. Sillier than the first movie, with some terrific slapstick and that same underlying sweetness (all those lovable animals!), but with much of the novelty worn off. Also, it's not clear whether the film is making fun of the lazy stereotyping of African characters in most Hollywood jungle movies or just indulging in it.

2. 'The Mask' (1994)

Carrey plays a meek banker whose discovery of an ancient mask turns him into a zoot-suited, super-powered, anarchic avenger. This was actually a pioneering movie in CGI history, though a lot of the cartoonish effects seem superfluous when you have Jim Carrey, who's already a rubber-faced, elastic-limbed Tex Avery character in human form. Bonus points to the film for launching Cameron Diaz's career, but what seemed novel about the movie then seems tiresome now.

1. 'Batman Forever' (1995)

Director Joel Schumacher's first Batman movie isn't as unforgivable as his "Batman & Robin," but it's close. Carrey is stuck in the thankless role of the Riddler and given little to do but prance around in a green leotard. (As fellow villain Two-Face, Tommy Lee Jones gives a similarly campy performance.) Imagine what a Bat-movie with real wit and edge and more on its mind than marketing toys could have done with Carrey as the conundrum-crafting crook.