With a penchant for high-energy slapstick and rambunctious, rubber-faced characters, Jim Carrey is a one-man army of non-stop, explosive hilarity that has made him a widely celebrated icon for the ages. Of course, the former In Living Color cast member is also never afraid to bring out the deeper side of his talent for more dramatic roles, like in The Truman Show, showing a versatility that puts him above most comedic performers from his time, or any time.
Shall we take a look back at his fascinating career by analyzing our picks for the best Jim Carrey movies, ranked in ascending order? Allllllllrighty then!
15. The Bad Batch (2016)
There is a decent chance that you may not have known Jim Carrey was in The Bad Batch, even if you had seen writer and director Ana Lily Amirpour’s romantic dystopian thriller starring Suki Waterhouse as a woman captured by a desert cannibal tribe. With help from some heavy makeup, the actor completely disappears into his performance as an unnamed, silent hermit — a character unlike any of the lively motormouths the actor is better known for and, as as result, one of the most intriguing roles of his career.
14. Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)
With a few notable exceptions which we will get to soon, it was hard to imagine Carrey ever taking on a villainous role before he was cast as Dr. Robotnik in director Jeff Fowler’s live-action Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation. However, as we likely could have seen coming, his signature uproarious energy made him a perfect choice for the mad scientist after the titular speedster and a key reason why the surprise hit is considered one of the best video game movies yet.
13. I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
Also with a few notable exceptions, audiences rarely think of Carrey as a romantic lead, but he crossed that item off of his bucket list in a very subversive way, especially for the time, when he starred in I Love You Phillip Morris. Writing and directing duo John Requa and Glenn Ficarra’s dark, yet often sweet, comedy tells the true story of con artist Steven Jay Russell (Carrey) and his devoted romance with his eponymous, fellow prison inmate (Ewan McGregor).
12. Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
While many believe Carrey gave one of the best Riddler portrayals in Batman Forever, even those same people don’t consider that live-action Batman movie to be a great superhero movie, per se. However, his performance as mob enforcer-turned-patriotic vigilante Colonel Stars and Stripes in Kick-Ass 2 matches perfectly with the sequel’s darkly comic tone and over-the-top violence, which the actor would actually disown the movie for later on.
11. Horton Hears A Who! (2008)
Carrey has had the honor of playing the title role in two of the best Dr. Seuss movies, including Horton Hears a Who! He and Steve Carell make a wonderful comedic duo as the voices of the gentle, eponymous elephant and the mayor of an unwittingly microscopic town Horton struggles to bring to safety in the charming, adventurous family film.
10. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
The more enduringly iconic of Carrey’s Dr. Seuss movies is director Ron Howard’s adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which brings the author’s distinct, surrealistic vision of Whoville to life in a dazzling live-action setting. Of course, it is Carrey’s tumultuous, transcendent performance as the titular curmudgeon — under Oscar-winning makeup by Rick Baker — that solidifies this hit that most critics didn't want to touch with a 39 and a half-foot pole as a holiday comedy classic in households around the world.
9. The Cable Guy (1996)
As far as the few antagonistic characters in Carrey’s repertoire go, the most memorable and unique, arguably, comes from director Ben Stiller’s pitch black farce, The Cable Guy. The more that the deceptively goofy cable TV installer makes life a living hell for his customer and hopeful best bud, Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick), the more hilarious it gets.
8. The Mask (1994)
Carrey’s first (non-superhero) comic book movie was a much, much lighter interpretation of Dark Horse’s The Mask, in which down-on-his-luck bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss finds a mysterious wizard that turns him into a living cartoon character with superhuman abilities and a menacing disposition. Never has the actor been so animated, versatile, and out of control, propelling the highly inventive, visually stunning fantasy crime thriller to comedic gold of a historical measure.
7. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Another example of why 1994 was a damn good year for the actor is the film that skyrocketed him to fame and introduced moviegoers to his definitive, rubber-faced character traits in the role of a private investigator with a knack for solving animal-related crimes and a tremendously bizarre personality. Featuring many of Jim Carrey’s funniest quotes and spawning a wild sequel (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a beloved ‘90s classic, beyond even the comedy genre.
6. Liar Liar (1997)
Carrey’s manic acting style feels especially authentic and narratively appropriate as a pathologically dishonest lawyer forced to get real after his son’s (Justin Cooper) birthday wish comes true, in director Tom Shadyac’s Liar Liar. Watching his Fletcher Reed drive himself to the brink of insanity over his curse is dazzlingly funny, but watching him face his demons and learn to be a better person and father in one of the first roles to show the actor’s sensitive side is heartwarming.
5. Bruce Almighty (2003)
He re-teamed with director Shadyac for an ambitious romp of truly heavenly proportions as a dissatisfied field reporter who blames God for his losing streak, only to meet Him in human form (Morgan Freeman) and accept an offer to take His job. In addition to being an epic gut-buster (i.e., making Steve Carell’s Evan Baxter speak gibberish on camera), Bruce Almighty is more than a story of a man who fixes his problems by acquiring omnipotency, but a clever, heartfelt morality tale about rediscovering one’s humanity by seeing the world in a larger scope.
4. Man On The Moon (1999)
As seen in the 2017 Netflix original documentary, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, Carrey literally lost himself in his performance as Andy Kaufman in director Milos Forman’s revealing biopic, Man on the Moon. The result was a Golden Globe-winning, mesmerizing, devastating, and truly one-of-a-kind portrayal of a truly one-of-a-kind comedy legend.
3. Dumb And Dumber (1994)
Carrey and two-time Emmy winner Jeff Daniels form one of the most powerful bromances in pop culture history as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, who drive across the country to deliver a lost briefcase that, unwittingly, makes them a target… not that they have the wit to perceive the danger they’re in anyway. From Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Dumb and Dumber is an essential buddy comedy that makes a convincingly blissful argument for idiocy, and might be the finest and funniest of Carrey’s trilogy of hits from 1994.
2. The Truman Show (1998)
Carrey gives one of his most soulful and devastating performances as married insurance salesman Truman Burbank, who is already desperate to escape his mundane existence when he begins to suspect that his relatively picturesque life is not all that it seems. In fact, every aspect of his life is part of a television show of which he is the star, in The Truman Show — a brilliant and frighteningly prophetic satire that earned Carrey his first Golden Globe, but should have earned him, at least, an Oscar nomination, as some believe.
1. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Despite Carrey’s snub, an Oscar was awarded to Charlie Kaufman, Pierre Bismuth, and director Michel Gondry for writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In this visually hypnotic, stunningly unique, and remarkably absorbing fantasy drama, Joel (Carrey) undergoes a surgery to erase his ex girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet, in an Oscar-nominated role), from his mind after their painful break-up, only realizing too late that he would rather keep those memories.
Nearly unmatched in its originality and its gripping, authentic examination of romance's tragic complexities, Eternal Sunshine sees Jim Carrey like you have never seen him before (or since) in a world beyond imagination.
In more recent years, Jim Carrey has revealed intentions to retire from acting, in favor of painting, catching up on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and being “frighteningly normal.” If this truly is the last we have seen of the icon on the screen, he has undeniably left a tremendous legacy of making us laugh and cry.
