It would be difficult to see this effort doing the same for Kennedy as it did for Carrey when, in fact, he'd struggle to make much of an impression against The Tweenies.

He plays frustrated cartoonist Tim Avery, a bland twerp entertaining hopes of realising his vocation with Animagic Studio boss Daniel Moss (comedian Steven Wright).

His plans go awry when he attends a fancy dress ball wearing a mask dragged into the house by his dog...and is transformed into a whirling dervish of a party animal by the magical facial accessory.

Still under the influence, he rushes home where he and his broody wife Tonya (Howard) conceive a baby boy - the literal Son of the Mask.

However, naughty Norseman Loki (Cumming) - The God of Mischief - has been ordered by his dad Odin (Hoskins) to recover the Mask... and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.

This is unavoidably a case of A-grade special effects dragged down by B-list celebrities ill-served by lifeless dialogue and a plot whose awfulness nothing can mask.

Cumming is game as the villainous Loki but Avery is all at sea as the new dad forced to deal with looking after an infant as well as being the stalked by a mythological deity.

There's some clever stuff involving Avery Jnr - who bears a worrying resemblance to a toddling Charles Kennedy - as he morphs into balloons. shrapnel-deflecting shields and a multi-barrelled urine cannon.

However, so limp is the cast that the sfx walk all over them, steamrollering any nuance of character and lending the whole shebang the impression you've been tied to a fairground ride for one and a half hours.

This mask has slipped.

Tim Evans