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Bruce Almighty (2003) Starring Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Lisa Ann Walter, Phillip Baker Hall, Catherine Bell, Nora Dunn.

Directed by Tom Shadyac.

Running time: 101 minutes.

Rating: PG-13

Network affiliate TV news reporter Bruce Nolan (Carrey) is the go to guy at his network affiliate whenever there is a fluff piece/human interest story. He longs for more meaningful work and feels like he is stuck in his job going nowhere. He takes out his frustration on God (Freeman) who decides to let Bruce have his almighty powers for awhile to see what it is like and how easy it is. Bruce finds it is not so easy but then he doesn't have the experience the guy normally in the job has.

Carrey turns in his familiar rubberfaced impressions and gives us a decent show every once in awhile here but they run out of interesting things for the character to do pretty quickly even with the wide-open concept and abundant budget. What they do come up with are silly sight gags, which may elicit the odd chuckle but these are hardly the kind of thing to write a movie around.

Freeman, a Hollywood actor generally identified with wisdom and authority by film audiences is well cast here. They also could have gotten Sam Elliott or Christopher Plummer. In any case each would have been better than some of the very few portrayals of God onscreen we have seen in the past. George Burns, Alanis Morrisette?! But what is he really asked to do here? Just stand around and laugh at Carrey fumbling with his powers. If you had time off wouldn't you golf or something?

Tom Shadyac consistently helms the most obscenely stupid, garish cinematic productions in modern Hollywood. His past work includes such scatterbrained rubbish as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Patch Adams. The fact that both made money has allowed him to continue working and to keep making films that critics or even just anyone with any taste in films cringe at.

The first mistake here was in casting Jennifer Aniston as the leading lady. She has very little to do here and it is not as though people really go to see Jim Carrey movies for the leading lady. Her asking price for movies alone makes her selection here puzzling but one senses there was a blank cheque behind this the budget. Why not give the role to Catherine Bell (playing a minor supporting character here) who is cheaper and just as appealing if not more than as Aniston is? I would prefer to see her for the duration of a film anyway.

Learn more about this author, Jason Daniel Baker.
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