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Bruce Almighty

 Plot Summary

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a reporter who is trying to get “anchorman” on his TV news station.  He never gets a chance to report on the big events and keeps getting the silly trivial local stories.  He is constantly moaning to his girlfriend, Grace (Jennifer Aniston), about how “hard-done-by” he is.  When he loses out to a colleague for the “anchorman” job he rants and raves about how life isn’t fair and that it’s all God’s fault.

God (Morgan Freeman) decides that if Bruce thinks he can do the job better he can go and do it while he takes a vacation!  God gives Bruce his powers and sends him on his way…

Review

This comedy is very much a Jim Carrey vehicle.  He gets up to his usual antics of slapstick comedy, pulling faces and fooling around.  In this regard he doesn’t really offer anything new.  Your enjoyment of the movie with probably depend on whether you like Jim Carrey or not as he very much takes centre stage for the whole movie.

The movie is funny and entertaining enough in a light-hearted frivolous way but don’t expect too much from the plot which other than the main idea of God giving Bruce his powers doesn’t really go any further and ends up fairly predictably.  For example when Bruce gets the powers of God he is fairly shallow and not very imaginative.  He gets a sports car and evens some scores with his employers.  There was definite an opportunity for some big ideas here!

Rather than have Jim Carrey “carry” the whole movie I thought better use could have been made of the supporting cast.  Jennifer Aniston offers good support as Bruce’s girlfriend Grace but should have had more opportunity to get involved in the comedy.  Likewise with Morgan Freeman, his straight performance balanced the goofy antics of Jim Carrey but I thought he should have played a bigger part.

Bottom Line:  Funny enough but nothing special.  If you like Jim Carrey you’ll probably enjoy the movie but if you’re not a fan of his face pulling and slapstick antics give it a miss.

Lasting thought:  Sometimes unanswered prayers are best.

Reviewed by Niall Quinn, Premier Movie Reviews 2003

Genre: Comedy

Certificate: 12's

Director: Tom Shadyac

~ Main Cast ~

Jim Carrey

Morgan Freeman

Jennifer Aniston

Philip Baker Hall

Catherine Bell

RATING

2 STARS

ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

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