Reviewed by: Becca, Joe, & Kris

Directed by: Tom Shadyac

Produced by: Tom Shadyac, Jim Carrey, James D. Brubaker, Michael Bostick, Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, & Steve Oedekerk

Cast: Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, Morgan Freeman, Lisa Ann Walter, & Nora Dunn

Comedy 1 hr. 34 min. Bruce Almighty stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a "human interest" television reporter in Buffalo, New York who is discontented with almost everything in life, despite his popularity and the love of his girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston). At the end of the worst day in his life, Bruce angrily ridicules and rages against God, and God responds. He appears in human form (Morgan Freeman) and, endowing Bruce with all of His divine powers, challenges Bruce to take on the big job and see if he can do it any better.

When this movie's trailer was first released I was really excited about seeing it. There are very few movies out there now that deal with religion in a humorous way, so I went to see it when it finally came out. I have to say that though it wasn't what I expected it was pretty decent. Jim Carrey has done alot worse.

Some of my issues with this movie was that I thought Carrey was moving up in the movie world, and he seems to have plummeted in this movie. He is back to his old stand bys of walking around funny, and beating himself up. I, also, think this movie lacks alot of details and explanation. I don't really understand exactly how much of the world he was controlling, but it couldn't of been the entire world. I know they mentioned it, but it was rather in passing and should of been explained a bit more. I don't particularly care for the reason god is letting him have control either, I mean at least Bruce believes in him. So, many people out there don't... but we can't get into that this is just a movie review.

All in all, this movie is good for a few laughs and chuckles. It definately not to be taken seriously in the slightest, and don't expect to find answers of the universe in this movie. I am not even sure God knows in this movie, what the hell he is doing.

Bruce Almighty is another good comedic popcorn flick but nothing extraordinary. There are too many small problems that plague the film to give it huge approval. The story is good but like it was said earlier, it is not spectacular. There are many funny elements within the course of the film but the story strays into too many moments where it just falls flat while the audience waits for the next hilarious moment to appear.

While talking on the subject of jokes, when is Carrey going to get off the fart and potty humor to get laughs. There are a lot of moments where he uses witty lines and such to make the audience laugh but then later in the film strays into making fart noises interrupting a news anchor. Another problem with the plot of the film is that when it does go to the serious moments, it becomes way too sappy and pushes away a lot of the audience that just came for the comedy. If you have seen any romantic comedy before this film, you basically know how it ends.

Most of the film is too predictable which sort of hurts it. Not to say the film is not funny. Jim Carrey saves the day for most of the film while Morgan Freeman helps with his rarely seen comedic whit. Bruce Almighty doesn't even come close to The Matrix Reloaded but does give some laughs for those too young to see the big hit sequel.

I really had no urge to see this movie when it came out. It just didn’t appeal to me. That’s probably because I’m not the biggest Jim Carrey fan out there. I don’t really like his sort of movies. I didn’t like Dumb and Dumber or Ace Ventura. He has done decent work as well though. I did like Liar, Liar and The Truman Show. I did finally see this movie, after three months of it being in theaters.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. It wasn’t as dumb as I expected it to be. It was really funny. And it wasn’t all stupid funny; it was a refreshing humor. Some parts I couldn’t help laughing at, they were just too funny. This is the type of movie to go see when you want to just have some fun and wash away the stress of the day.

This isn’t a movie that going to win any awards. It’s not serious enough for that, but after seeing some of the movies this summer had to offer, I’m glad it wasn’t a serious movie. I doubt I could have handled another cheesy, serious flick. I might have puked. So I’m glad this was an escape movie. An escape from some of the crap Hollywood put out there this summer.

See this movie if you want to laugh. See it if you want to escape from the dull, action movies of the summer. Don’t see it if you want something serious because you won’t like it.