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Bruce Almighty Bruce Almighty is an almost textbook case of lazy script writing and under developed scenarios. The premise of the movie has such wasted potential, you want to grab those sonofabitch screenwriters by the lapels and shake 'em until they beg for mercy.
Director Tom Shadyac has directed Jim Carrey twice before, in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Liar Liar (1997). Since their last movie together, Carrey has flirted with more serious parts which, although not financial successes, have at least met with some critical approval, particularly his roles in The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and The Majestic. All of which make Bruce Almighty feel like a step backwards for all concerned.
Carrey plays Bruce Nolan, a local reporter for Channel 7 News in Buffalo, New York with a talent for making people smile with his homespun human interest stories. But Bruce is yearning to get the soon-to-be vacant anchorman’s post and when his colleague Evan Baxter (Steven Carell) gets in ahead of him, Bruce rages to the heavens asking why God keeps ignoring him.
For some reason, God decides to stop ignoring Bruces’s self-centred pleas and gets in contact via his pager, even though it has been crushed to pieces by a passing car after Bruce flung it out of a window in a fit of rage. (Incidentally, the number on the pager turned out to be a real number matching several people who have been inundated with calls from people wanting to speak to God.) It turns out that God is a white-suited Morgan Freeman who gives Bruce all of his powers for a while to see if he can do any better.
Bruce decides to use these powers to his own end, destroying the career of Evan Baxter and seeking revenge on a bunch of Hispanic hoodlums who had beaten the crap out of him earlier that week.
This leads to some admittedly funny moments, and unlike Old School, at least I did laugh out loud in the movie theatre. In particular, the scene when Bruce uses his powers to make Evan fart and speak gibberish during a live news broadcast was brilliantly done. But these moments of inspired comedy are spread very thinly and material of a lesser calibre is used as filler for most of the movie.
Bruce ignores the prayers that are building up in his head until he decides to answer “yes” to all of them in one go, causing mayhem as thousands of lottery winners riot because they only won a few dollars. Of more concern are the tsunamis that Bruce causes in Japan by dragging the moon closer to the Earth in order to spice up his love life. The morality of the havoc this causes is glossed over in the movie and never referred to again.
Jim Carrey himself looks slightly pained pulling his trademark goofy faces, as if he’s only thinking of the pay cheque being deposited in the bank. He’s on form for some of the movie, but for the most part its Jim Carrey by numbers. He also fails to have much on screen chemistry with Jennifer Aniston who plays his girlfriend, Grace (are you getting this symbolism?)
Bruce ends up losing his girlfriend because he's thinking only about his career at the expense of his relationship. Of course, he has a yawn-inspired moment of realisation, starts helping people and wins back Grace.
It just makes you want to vomit into a bucket.
If you like this kind of schmaltzy stuff, at least go back to the source and watch Frank Capra‘s It's a Wonderful Life (1946) starring Jimmy Stewart, or if you want a superb comedy take on the redemption theme, watch Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day (1993) starring one of the funniest men alive, Bill Murray.
Unless you want to get into a theological discussion with someone over the dubious morality and preachy sermons to be found in the movie, or are a Jim Carrey fan with time to waste, I'd be looking to see what else is playing at the Multiplex.
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