If you like Jim Carrey, or people who make disgusting noises, hit you repeatedly, spit food and fluids on you and yell a lot, you'll love "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls." The scatalogical double entendre of the title is a barometer of the movie's prepubescent toilet humor, which varies from mildly offputting to downright nauseating. Carrey as Ace relishes the opportunity to transform into his alter ego, the Human Cartoon; but, after using that persona in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "The Mask," "Dumb and Dumber" and "Batman Forever," it's wearing thin.
The premise is that Ace must travel to Africa to find a missing sacred bat, or two tribes will (for some reason) annihilate one another. But, with the camera trained on Ace and his antics for 99.9 percent of the film, we hardly care about the tribes' fate. There are animal rights messages and a few sparks of cleverness, but the bat recovery scene recalls "Pee Wee's Big Adven-ture's" snake rescue; Ace's elongation of the word "loser" ("lah-hoo...suh-her") was uttered by Louie DePalma on TV's "Taxi"; "Trading Places" originated the dubious idea of a villain receiving his comeuppance via gorilla rape; and John Waters should receive even more dubious credit for introducing the talking derriere concept in "Pink Flamingoes." Starring Jim Carrey. Directed and written by Steve Oedekerk. Produced by James G. Robinson. A Warner Bros. release. Comedy. Rated PG-13 for crude humor. Running time: 92 min.