Mask

Son of the Mask is a frantic sequel tailor-made for short attention spans. For 86 manic minutes, this belated follow-up to 1994's Jim Carrey hit The Mask compensates for Carrey's absence by casting Jamie Kennedy as a cut-rate animator who becomes heavily animated himself (courtesy of non-stop computer-animated effects) when he dons the ancient mask that belongs to Loki (Alan Cumming, nicely cast), the Norse god of mischief. As in the Carrey film, the mask turns its wearers into cartoonish whirlwinds of confident bluster, and that includes a little dog named Otis, and especially Kennedy's mask-induced offspring, a frenetic shape-shifting baby that's more creepy than comedic, like Ally McBeal's dancing infant on steroids and speed. This woebegone sequel quickly vanished from theaters, but it's a harmless babysitter that kids will enjoy, from the director of the similarly effects-driven Cats & Dogs. --Jeff Shannon