Stanley Ipkiss has a problem. His Honda is in the shop, his landlady is abusive and his job at the bank is no longer fulfilling. He is the kind of man who women call "the nicest guy in the world."


What Stanley needs is a personality. In Charles Russell's "The Mask," which opened on Thursday at Americom, he obtains one in the grand cinematic style: artificially.


Through the combined efforts of special-effects virtuosos and Jim Carrey's face, it's one of the most entertaining transformations to grace the screen in years. Stanley puts on an ancient Norse mask and explodes into a green-complected creature who is half Tasmanian Devil and half Julio Iglesias: the dreamiest leading man that Loony Tunes could put out.


As The Mask, Stanley lives out the fantasies of every urban Walter Mitty: He wins the heart of lounge singer Tina Carlisle (Cameron Diaz); outfoxes her mobster boyfriend (Peter Greene); and actually installs his Civic's exhaust system in a diabolical repairman. He makes good his revenge with a series of petty but gratifying crimes which attract attention from both sides of the law. The film's plot line is unabashedly thin, but the film is borne up by Carrey's rampages through the art-deco dreamscape of Edge City.


Carrey has appeared in the ensemble cast of the television series "In Living Color," and boosted his screen credentials with the summer hit "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective." The actor spent four hours with the Oscar-winning makeup artist Greg Cannom before every day of shooting for "The Mask," as technicians matched the mask to Carrey's face. Once again, he proves himself to be an amazing physical comedian, and sometimes you wish you could see what was going on under the green latex.


When his tongue unrolls lasciviously across a table at the Coco Bongo Club, Carrey has definitely passed the baton to Industrial Light and Magic. But wherever he came from, The Mask is a joy to watch, as his eyeballs swivel wildly, his chin hits the ground, his heart leaps several feet out of his chest, and he foils the entire police force by leading them out of the city in a hypnotic congo line.


"The Mask" owes a lot to a solid group of supporting actors. Particularly good are Peter Reigert as the savvy, frustrated Lieutenant Kellaway, and Amy Yasbeck as the journalist who props Stanley up with ingenuous moral support. And Max -- the Jack Russell terrier who plays Stanley's dog Milo -- is a remarkable animal.


The movie's special effects are showcased by a visually elegant background. Edge City is a tuned-down Gotham which strives less to capture any particular time or place and more to be a pop-culture vision of the American metropolis. The city bursts into comic-book color along with Stanley Ipkiss -- the Coco Bongo is all palm trees and purple lights, and the spooky rendezvous at Landfill Park looks out at a 1950s nightmare of urban decay.


"True Lies," the Arnold Schwartzenegger movie that was scheduled to premiere on Thursday, has been postponed until January, when it will open in Russian theaters. United Pictures International, which distributes the film, decided to delay the opening "at the last minute, unfortunately," said Ray Markovich of Golden Ring Entertainment Co. "The Mask" will replace it on the Americom schedule.





Both "The Mask" and "Naked Gun 33 1/3" are showing at the Americom House of Cinema at the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel through Nov. 2. Showtimes for "Mask" are 8:50 P.M. every day and 4 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday; "Naked Gun" shows at 7 P.M. each day. Tickets for each film are $7 in rubles or $7.50 by credit card. Tel. 941-8747. Nearest metro: Kievskaya.