Bruce Almighty ---- *** (out of 5) (2003)
Cast: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Bell, Philip Baker Hall
Director(s): Tom Shadyac
Screenwriter(s): Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, Steve Oedekerk
Released on: May 23, 2003
Reviewed on: June 23, 2003
Rated: PG-13 - for language, sexual content and some crude humor
It's kind of funny how I ended up seeing BRUCE ALMIGHTY in the theatre this past Sunday. Me and my parents were actually going to see THE ITALIAN JOB. My dad went to the park the car so me and my mom went to buy tickets ahead of time. We looked up and realized that it had stopped playing Thursday, and we had neglected to check the Friday paper, in which the film lineup had changed. We were forced to pick a movie quickly because we were in the mood for one and weren't about to leave. So we chose BRUCE ALMIGHTY and had to switch from action mode to comedy mode. Excuse me. What I meant to say was to switch from action mode to Carrey mode. Somehow, the change was too quick and BRUCE hit us full-force with Jim Carrey's antics and silliness. However, the film actually turned into a romantic comedy by the end and had an important moral that made it plenty worthwhile to see.
Bruce Nolan is a reporter constantly stuck with bad stories that is urging to land a desk job in the news studio. His girlfriend (Aniston) that tries to look at things in a positive way clashes with Bruce's outlook on life while living with him in the same apartment. Bruce snaps one day when his arch nemesis, Evan Baxter, obtains the desk job he so longed for and he goes berserk on live television. That night, he criticizes God for ignoring him and his situation. The next day, he follows some signs and ends up at an abandoned building where he meets God for the first time in the form of Morgan Freeman. God grants all of his powers to Bruce to show him how hard it is to rule the world and, as predicted, Bruce has fun at first but ends up with a lot more on his hands than he bargained for.
Bruce's relationship with his girlfriend, Grace, reminds me of his relationship with his ex-wife on LIAR LIAR. Carrey is a good actor when it comes to playing the role of an insanely goofy loser that can't seem to stay out of trouble enough to keep his lady friend happy, resulting in everybody's feelings being hurt.
The film is funny with Carrey to spice things up and has some touching drama and sentimentality towards the end, but it really isn't that great of a film considering it's pretty predictable. We all know from the trailer of the film and from the grudge Bruce has on everyone that he's going to spend a lot of time setting the score with Evan and getting revenge on the street gang that roughed him up early in the movie. As it turns out, he actually spends too much time messing with the minds of Buffalo, NY citizens and it all goes awry eventually.
I suppose Carrey is known for the roles he is usually chosen for, so we shouldn't hope for getting anything dramatically different out of him. He only managed to pull that off once with the brilliantly crafted TRUMAN SHOW but I'm afraid that might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for him since he never did go back to films of that kind of genre. Carrey can do drama but it's hard to take him seriously. BRUCE ALMIGHTY was an entertaining film on the whole. Personally, I think he should keep doing comedy but maybe approach it with a different perspective for his next film to show that he has variety as an actor. I'm not asking him to be like Robin Williams and go from MRS. DOUBTFIRE to INSOMNIA. I just think he should try things a little differently so he can remain spontaneous.
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