Where is Jim Carrey when you need him?

I don't know, but he's wisely nowhere near "Son of the Mask," which is nowhere near the fab father film that begat it.

	Vince Valitutti, New Line Cinema Jamie Kennedy and his dog must deal with the powers of the Mask of Loki in "Son of the Mask." Click photo for larger image. 'Son of the Mask' Rating: PG for action, crude and suggestive humor and language. Starring: Jamie Kennedy, Alan Cumming. Director: Lawrence Guterman.

This sequel opportunity employer puts Jamie Kennedy in the lead as Tim, a normal nebbish of a cartoonist with a normal suburban life, wife (Traylor Howard), baby Alvey (Ryan Falconer) and dog (Otis) -- until Otis discovers the same mega-magic Mask that Carrey stumbled upon in 1994. These days, it is freshly recharged with the fantastic transformational powers of Loki, Norse god of mischief (Alan Cumming).

The dog, the baby and the special-effects team have great fun changing real shapes and situations into surreal ones at will, and misbehavin' in general. But top-god Odin (Bob Hoskins) is not amused: From Norse heaven, he commands Loki to get the mask back -- or there'll be Norse hell to pay.

The result is a Roadrunner cartoon on a "Titanic" budget with Cumming, the Wylie Coyote comic villain, hotly pursuing super-baby Alvey and getting fooled, foiled or blown up every few minutes.

So, what do you expect from something that acknowledges its derivation from Dark Horse comic books? You buy your ticket not for the screenplay but the animatronic F/X, the state of which art has come a long way -- lightyears -- since '94. "Son of the Mask" hurls the whole new arsenal at us fast and furiously: hand grenades sprout from fingertips, pianos turn into mobile missiles, halls become walls, heads are suddenly noses ...

There are some clever touches (the digital hourglass) and a few good film-referenced gags. What to do with the kidnapped baby? "First I'm gonna call a pediatrician, then an exorcist," says Cumming -- just before the kid's head revolves and he fills the getaway car with green slime. But more of those big F/X bucks should have been spent on animatronic Alvey himself/itself. In many scenes, he and his minimal movement look like a Charlie McCarthy dummy, shot as often as possible from behind.

Kennedy's character is only amusing when he gets Carrey-esque crazed, while Cumming's dirty Goth tricks get their fair share of laughs.

The trouble with this film is its raison d'etre and M.O.: "All-F/X, all the time" -- with a little dialogue to separate major gags and chases from each other -- devalues the currency and gets exhausting. Deployed sparingly and calculatedly in the original, they left you waiting in high anticipation for each spectacular use. Here, they come at you relentlessly, with no rules of physics or logic. When anybody can do anything, nothing is very surprising because EVERYTHING is unreal.

The original "Mask" was a comic fantasy with special effects, for all ages. "Son" is a special-effects fantasy with low comedy, for kids. I tallied more than 200 F/X companies and individuals in the final credits. I can also report that there were 12 caterers.

Nothing exceeds like excess.