Predictable madness.

Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Morgan Freeman playing God is a funny romp but it is quite formulatic at times. This film is mighty flawed but Carrey's engergtic performance saves this possible train wreck. Aniston has great range as an actress but she seems so out of place in this movie, you just don't believe her in this one. Freeman is brilliant as always but the plot is kinda silly. This one is sorta overrated but entertaining. Decide for yourself.

PROVOCATIVE PLOT AND JIM CARREY = BRUCE ALLMIGHTY

CARREY WOULD HAVE TO BE GOD TO MAKE SOME OF THESE PRANKS BELIEVABLE!

There are parts of this film, particularly in the beginning and then immediately after Bruce becomes Almighty, that are funny and fun beyond belief. But then, as we look around we see a lack of growth by the character [Bruce - Jim Carrey] at a point in the film where we'd expect him to 'get it' and have some kind of epiphany. The epiphany, when it does comes, comes in the form of devotion to the overlooked woman who has been praying for him all along, but it feels like it is too little too late.

Narcissism seems to dominate 'Bruce Almighty' and it comes without enough balance thus making Bruce appear to be what he really would be like if he were god; a vain, selfish, lazy, hateful and vengeful god. Hardly the improvement the Bruce seemed to be promising when it all began!

MEDIOCRITY: A STATE OF MIND

Put simply, Bruce Nolan [Carrey] is dissatisfied with his life and feels it lacks meaning. "Mediocre" is the way Bruce described it. After complaining to god about everything he could think of that pertains to him and him alone, he gets to meet god and is endowed with god's powers so that he [Bruce] can set things right in his own way, presumably a better way.

The problem is that Bruce has the same character flaws that he had before he was god and thus uses his power for his own self-indulgences which are rather mean spirited and narcissistic. He creates his own news, gets even with bullies, turns on his girl friend, Grace, [Jennifer Aniston] and literally pulls the full moon closer for its romantic effect.

BUT . . . . . . . the effects that all of his actions have on others is almost universally harmful. Creating news by having a meteor strike near him while the camera was running did no one but Bruce any good. Even his lazy way of answering prayers but simply typing YES on his computer to all 3+ million of them had harmful effects. This is the point of the film where Bruce should have been starting to smarten up, but instead Bruce just indulged himself until he found that these shallow, petty self-indulgences were NOT improving his life or at least the way it felt to him. Still, Bruce never really demonstrated a change of attitudes while endowed with god's powers and never showed any real charity or caring toward others until Grace left him [except in deleted scenes].

MY TAKE ON 'BRUCE ALMIGHTY'

Well all of this would certainly be acceptible except that Jim Carrey seems to be asking us to take this film and its content completely seriously. 'Bruce Almighty' is at times very funny. My personal favorite scene, is Scene 11 on the DVD where Evan Baxter, [Steve Carell] spends two full minutes as a televised news anchor saying whatever Bruce felt like having the man that stole his job opportunity say and do, in order to demean and discredit him. This scene basically sums up the film, parts of it are hilarious but we are left in the second half looking for meaning that never really comes because Bruce's only real epiphany comes in the form of the loss of Grace, [Jennifer Aniston] who had cared for him rather unselfishly all along.

ABOUT GOD: MORGAN FREEMAN SHOWS RATHER THAN TELLS & DOES IT LIKE A GOD

Morgan Freeman as god was terrific and wonderfully understated. He seemed to portray the idea that less is more where god's intervention is concerned. He also displayed infinite patience with Bruce and managed to keep a kind of mystical persona in all of his appearances, but especially in his last, where we were introduced with the notion that all or part of this was a kind of dream or perhaps not. Freeman's powerful presence coupled with Carrey's frenetic energy made for the most intense scenes in the film.

-----> THE PRINCIPAL CAST [DIRECTED BY: TOM SHADYAC]

Jim Carrey - Bruce Nolan
Jennifer Aniston - Grace
Morgan Freeman - God
Philip Baker Hall - Jack Keller
Catherine Bell - Susan Ortega
Lisa Ann Walter - Debbie
Steve Carell - Evan Baxter
Nora Dunn - Ally Loman
Sally Kirkland - Anita Mann
Tony Bennett - Himself

-----> AWARDS

Best Supporting Actor (win) Morgan Freeman 2004 NAACP Image Awards


DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:

OUT-TAKES, DELETED SCENES, & 'THE PROCESS OF JIM' FEATURETTE



*---> 'THE DELETED SCENES', I felt some of the deleted scenes should have been included in the film because they gave the impression that Bruce had more of an epiphany and was growing as a human being into someone we could have more empathy with. We did see Bruce doing thoughtful things for others in some of these scenes and I can't help wondering why they were cut -- except for the running time of the film!

*---> 'THE OUT-TAKES', nice to see once, but they are something we have grown rather familiar with around Jim Carrey. Nothing new here, but there are some funny things to see and will be especially appreciated by Carrey's fans.

*---> ''THE PROCESS OF JIM' FEATURETTE, interesting though short, Jim Carrey is obviously having some fun here.


CONCLUSION: A PROMISING CARREY VEHICLE WITH SOME 'REEL' HOOTS

'Bruce Almighty' is a must see for Jim Carrey fans, though not his best work. Carrey again tries to be taken at face value, as in 'The Truman Show', but that is a rather hard sell with the director of 'Liar Liar', and 'Ace Ventura Pet Detective' sterring the project. Still, the film has a wonderful theme, Carrey is always full of explosively energetic fun and he's got Morgan Freeman as god and Jennifer Aniston as Grace, to pray for him.

Mighty Wonderful!

What can I say? The movie was absolutely hilarious!!! I was laughing so hard throughout the whole movie, that I found it hard to control myself! I watched it with a few friends, one of whom was visiting from another country, and he loved it so much that we went to the store and bought it there for him. The time from purchasing it from Amazon.com and receiving it at my house was great and I will be using this site again - as a matter of fact, I have already purchased another movie! Thank you again, Amazon.com! You're the tops!!