Bruce Almighty (DVD)

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Jim Carrey- Bruce Nolan
Morgan Freeman- God, the Lord, the man upstairs or whatever else you call him
Jennifer Aniston- Grace Connelly

Carrey is well known for his wackiness and totally insane behaviour, which I first saw in films like Ace Ventura- Pet Detective and The Mask. His wackiness makes him popular with a lot of people but also unpopular with others. His earlier movies entertained me as a child and ...
...year, to his previous film Bruce Almighty, the film that did to Carrey’s film what Pulp Fiction did for Travolta’s.

The story;

Bruce Nolan has quite a lot going for him, a good loving girlfriend (and let’s not forget pretty) in the form of Grace. He has a job as a reporter for his local TV station in Buffalo, New York, his own car his own apartment and a dog (who p**ses every where but where he’s ... more

Studios- Universal
Length- 101 min/ 1 hour 41 mins
Rating- PG-13
Genre- Comedy

Cast

Jim Carrey- Bruce Nolan
Morgan Freeman- God, the Lord, the man upstairs or whatever else you call him
Jennifer Aniston- Grace Connelly

Carrey is well known for his wackiness and totally insane behaviour, which I first saw in films like Ace Ventura- Pet Detective and The Mask. His wackiness makes him popular with a lot of people but also unpopular with others. His earlier movies entertained me as a child and his films have changed to entertain me in all stages in life.
Over the last few years his career has slumped slightly, as I have not seen him in any films since Man on the Moon. It’s only now that he’s becoming popular again. His recent film - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is doing fairly well, but let us go back a year, to his previous film Bruce Almighty, the film that did to Carrey’s film what Pulp Fiction did for Travolta’s.

The story;

Bruce Nolan has quite a lot going for him, a good loving girlfriend (and let’s not forget pretty) in the form of Grace. He has a job as a reporter for his local TV station in Buffalo, New York, his own car his own apartment and a dog (who p**ses every where but where he’s supposed too). Seems pretty good right? Well he doesn’t think so. He think’s his life is as he puts it mediocre. He gets reports that make him look like the clown reporter and sees he’s going no where basically. All this upsets his girlfriend, that he finds life with her mediocre. He really hits the roof when he looses the co-anchor job to Evan Backster or Backstabber as he calls him afterward. He gets so angry he flips out on live TV calling the broadcast team F***ers and so as you can guess it, he gets the fired.
Bruce is not all that bad though, he does try and help a poor homeless guy who’s being hassled by a gang of thugs, but then typically they turn on him. He then has an argument with Grace, and to top off a truly bad day he crashes his car. He’s not bothered that his still alive, he just still in self-pity. And who does he blame for his bad luck. Not himself, but God. Yeah, it’s nice that he believes in God (even when his really angry at him), but he curses him so much, what can God do but answer, and he does that in the shape of Morgan Freeman. Yep out of all the people he could have answered for being angry at him and in misbelief that he exists at all, he picks Bruce. Bruce is scared thinking he’s a mad-man at first, thinking he’s going to hurt him, but God isn’t like that, although he is going to teach Bruce a lesson. Since Bruce thinks God can’t do his job right, he’s going to let Bruce do it for a while. He gets on all of God’s power, but he does get God’s only two rules, you can’t tell any one about being God and you can’t mess with free will.
Bruce still can’t really believe he met God and that now he is God himself. When he finally realizes the true extent of his powers, Bruce acts like a kid in a candy store, fixing his own life, and screwing a few other people’s over too. He eventually realizes (well is told by God) that he is miss-using his powers, and that being God means he has to help others too. He soon finds out though that being God and having all the power in the universe can’t fix everything and ends up creating more problems than he solves, like the entire town rioting, and even losing Grace. I will leave it there, so if you want to know what happens, then watch the film.

Performances

Jim Carrey- He is his usual manic self. In fact it reminds me of his performance in Liar Liar but with the added fantasy gags of The Mask. I did not like the character of Bruce too much, sure he was funny, but he was also a bit of a cry baby and selfish. He has a life better than most people do yet he was still complaining. To me he seems like a man in a mid-life crisis. There are thousands of those around but I don’t see why God picked him. He’s a manic as he ever was, which too many will be a little dated to be honest, but he can still spin a few new catchphrase or two for his characters. He has three in this: ‘B-E-A utiful’, ‘It’s Gooood’ and ‘And that’s the way the cookie crumbles’. I think his performance from this film has done well to make him popular again. Maybe he needed a few years out of the light to come up with new material, or just at least for people to be in the mood for his kind of comedy again.
I wish I was able to handle the abuse from other people in the way he does. It does sometimes worry me that beneath the clownish, comedic image the public see, he could be deeply sad and depressed in private like so many other comedians.
I too feel like Bruce sometimes though, that God is against me.

Morgan Freeman- From now on, every time I see him in a film, I will picture him playing God. I don’t actually picture God as a person, but if he did come to Earth as a person, well he wouldn’t be doing a bad job if he came as some one like him. Wait a minute though; apparently he already has though, as Jesus. That made me think, if Morgan Freeman was meant to be God come to Earth, wouldn’t that make him Jesus?
He kind of makes you feel sorry for God though, when you see what happens to Bruce. God has to deal with it every day. If that’s the consequences of trying to help, no wonder he doesn’t do it too often. It also reminded me that by giving us free will God made the sacrifice of people being able to choose not to love or believe in him. When Bruce tries to make Grace love him again, he can’t do it, and when he asks God how he can make her love him with out using free will, he tells him something like ‘If you can come up with an answer to, tell me because I’ve being trying to find that out for years.’
It’s nice to see Morgan joining in with the comedy. You usually see him in more dramatical parts, so it makes a change. He even goes as far as to use one of Carrey’s (Ace Ventura’s) more memorable catchphrases ‘All-righty then’. What they both mustn’t have realized is they could have changed it at some point to ‘All-mighty then’.

Jennifer Aniston- Of course every one now’s her best as Rachel in Friends, but that’s finished now and she’s trying to move on, and break the mould they have all made for themselves, which is hard to do after ten years. She has been in movies before, but now she has finished with Friends, she has more time to focus on films (and making babies apparently).
She is rather good in this film, she makes you feel genuinely sorry for Grace, having to put up with Bruce’s moaning about their life together and his generally childish behavior.

Why should you see it?
If you are a fan of Jim Carrey then you will have probably already seen it. If you still haven’t seen it, you must have very strong reasons not to, or you just aren’t into comedy films or films in general.
It is a really uplifting film and of course very funny too. I don’t think it’s going to offend any one faith wise (as films focusing on religion sometimes do). In fact I think it kind of teaches you a lesson about wanting God to fix everything for you. If your one of those people who moans about your life and how you think it’s God’s fault for not helping, then this may or may not help you realize how wrong you are (well it could have the same effect as an Oxfam add at least, without being as depressing).
If you want to watch a real religious film, then maybe The Passion of Christ would be better for you, but after you come out of the cinema all depressed and guilt filled, why not pop into Blockbuster and rent this what better film to make you feel better about religion than one of the best films of 2003.
As well is being religious, I would say it was a family film. I wouldn’t let very young children watch it. There isn’t any sex as such, but you kind of get innuendo at some points, and of course there is some strong language at some points too. It is rated PG-13 though so it’s not a strictly teenage/adult film. It’s really your choice if you want your children to see it or not, but I might advise you to watch it yourself first.

If you are religious and don’t get offended easily, plus you like Jim Carrey, then this film is for you. As for the Scrooge’s out there who value possessions and money over people, then this film may be your three ghosts. In any case, it’s got to be better than other so called comedies with 30 something men pretending to be teenagers chasing after girls with bigger chests than heads.

Those of you who have Sky, I hear it has been on this past month on Box Office. Believe me it is worth the payment. Not got Sky, why not rent it instead. If you are considering buying it, I wouldn’t tell you not to. I probably wouldn’t buy it myself (as I already have it). It is a great film, but I am usually one of those people who wait until it’s on TV. I got it cheap though. I don’t regret it though. It is a great film. Any one considering watching it or even buying it, I hope after you read this opinion you will.

My opinion:
Recently I have had reasons to be like Bruce, blaming God for all the things that are going wrong in my life. I watch this film to remind myself that God can’t fix everything and that there would probably be consequences any way, like in the film Grace lost Bruce. Even though the film is meant to teach you this, I still wouldn’t mind a little push from God once in a while myself, I mean come on who wouldn’t really do what Bruce did. To many this film would be a fantasy come true being able to play God or have magical powers.
The film also taught me that people have to help themselves and help each other, even though most people will just stand by and watch people suffer rather than suffer themselves. The other day I helped a woman get a pram off the bus and everyone just starred as if I was doing something wrong rather than right.
Another thing I liked about the film is the way it is religious, yet it is still funny. Most of religion is meant to make you feel bad about yourself. This film teaches you a lesson, but also gets you smiling.

I am amazed myself that I still laugh and enjoy Jim Carrey. You may think I’m just another idiot teenager that can be entertained by some one falling over and injuring themselves rather than helping them (well yeah if that person was being an idiot themselves, I mean I would help an elderly person), but that’s your opinion if you think I’m that kind of person, I mean why would you think otherwise, you don’t know me.

I must mention two of the best/most memorable moments in the film; you may have seen them already.
The seven finger scene, where Bruce tries to trick God by having him guess his fingers, although God ‘seer of all’ knows what he’s done so he gives Bruce seven fingers on his one hand.
The anal dwelling butt monkey scene, where Bruce, after getting God’s powers confronts the street gang again and one of the street thug ends up with a spider monkey crawls out of his butt. For those who may remember Ace Ventura, then you may remember Spike his pet monkey. I not entirely sure it was the same monkey but they do live quite a while.

Adding God into the piece was a unique touch. This film could have just been about a guy who wins the lottery would have worked pretty much the same. Making it more into a fantasy allowed some more farfetched gags to work. I really hope the film is right about God, and that he’s not as Bruce said like a kid over and ant hill with magnifying glass picking out individuals to burn.
It is a good film, one that you have to watch several times, first few to get the gags out of the way and then to get the message.

Well that’s it. Hope I haven’t spoiled it too much for you and that I have persuaded you to watch it or at least convinced you what a good film it is. Those of you who have watched it, I hope you can agree with me what a good film it is. If you still aren’t convinced there are about 50 other people who have reviewed it too. Maybe reading theirs might sway your own opinion.

If you do watch and like this film, then his new film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind might also be for you. I have not seen it yet, it’s a romantic comedy which is not really my cup of tea. Any way the next film I will probably see will be Van Helsing.
Don’t get me wrong though, I hear it’s a good film.

To Ciao Members-
As usually if you find any problems with my opinion, or there is anything you would like me to include that I didn’t, as usually your comments are well appreciated. 

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