10. Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Tomatometer: 60 percent

Sea Bass! Part of Carrey's 1994 trilogy of broad-as-a-barn, occasionally revolting comedies, Dumb and Dumber paired the rising star with Jeff Daniels as a pair of well-meaning dimwits who stumble into a cross-country adventure involving Lauren Holly and a briefcase full of cash. While not quite the across-the-board smash that There's Something About Mary turned out to be a few years later, Dumb and Dumber still managed to include enough charm between the goofy jokes to reach 60 percent on the Tomatometer. It didn't win any points for smarts, obviously, but that was beside the point -- as recognized by writers such as Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, who noted that "Carrey...does literal-minded doofdom with peerless enthusiasm."

9. Earth Girls are Easy (1992)
Tomatometer: 61 percent

You might be surprised to find this late-night cable mainstay on a list that includes cult favorites like The Cable Guy and box-office champs like Bruce Almighty, but the Tomatometer does not lie, and critics cheered loudly enough to send this 1989 cult classic all the way up to 61 percent. Although quite a few scribes sniffed at at Earth Girls are Easy's low ambitions and thick layer of cheese, a greater number were able to grin and bear Julien Temple's brightly colored send-up of hokey sci-fi and '80s life in the San Fernando Valley. As a furry red alien named Wiploc, Carrey received one of his first major chunks of screen time here, and although his efforts were rewarded with minimal box-office success, he did get to trade lines with Geena Davis and Julie Brown -- and help earn some delightfully backhanded praise from the likes of Luke Y. Thompson of the New Times, who declared the film to be "stupid but wonderful."