Morgan Freeman as God? I wish.
Director Tom Shadyac struck it big with Jim Carrey and Liar Liar. It was the first Jim Carrey film that showed his possibilities in a drama. Sure it was funny most of the time, but when it came down to the father and son moments, it worked out really well. It was a good balance between serious and funny. It was a fanastic departure from The Mask (cringe). Anyway, Shadyac is reunited again with Carrey in this Godly comedy called Bruce Almighty.
The summary of the story goes like this. Bruce is a ‘kicker’ reporter who wants to do more serious pieces and ultimately wants the head anchor position at a local television station. When he gets jumped over by Evan (who becomes Noah later in life), he goes nuts and gets fired from his job. Not wanting to blame himself, he starts to blame God for all of his problems and accuses God at one point of being a kid with a magnifying class burning ants. When God finally gets fed up with the griping, he confronts Bruce and hands over his powers to him. Bruce ends up creating more bad than good and finds out that his human life wasn’t as complicated and busy as his almighty life.
Shadyac’s attempt at catching lightning in a bottle twice might have come up short a bit. There is no doubt in my mind that the premise behind Bruce Almighty was a good one. It was out in the open that God’s day-to-day activities are a lot crazier than our own. That was a good premise and even better when handed over to a human being to walk in God’s shoes. The problem lies in the transition from Bruce going nuts to Bruce obtaining God’s powers; everything before and after is well done. It’s always difficult to write a story and build a bridge between one transition in a movie to another transition. Here, Shadyac, Steven Koren, Mark O’Keefe and Steve Oedekerk just didn’t build that transition strong enough. We have a man at the beginning of the film that is obviously bitter because he’s stuck doing kickers for a local news. It’s a perfect situation for a funny guy to no longer want to entertain, that’s what is happening to Bruce. That set-up was perfect, but when there is a five-minute stretch where Bruce is cursing God and mocking him, it’s a bit out of place. He gives no indication of religion prior to that moment, but pours it on thick during that moment. All that amounts to is a poorly built bridge that transitions Morgan Freeman’s introduction as God. This one moment is clearly out of place, and almost a device that basically just leads the story forward. This one moment disrupted the film, which is sad. Again, everything at the beginning of the film, the intro to Bruce and everything after the film, Bruce’s eventual downfall, is nearly perfect. Regretfully that forced placement really just makes us all uncomfortable and doesn’t properly transition act one to the rest of the acts. The director and writers should have smoothed this out.
As for the acting, Jim Carrey doesn’t pour on the obnoxiousness, he gets close. He is convincing as a bitter reporter and even more so as someone who just strives to want more, but can’t seem to get around the road bumps. I actually really enjoyed watching him on screen. As for Morgan Freeman, is there not a more perfect man to play God? Love his voice, his looks and his suave nature in general. I doubt anyone can argue that they can’t stand him onscreen (maybe his rivals, if he has any). As for Jennifer Anniston, per usual she plays her ‘Rachel’ role in the movie. Either she has no range or they’re not giving this girl enough parts to show it. I’m not sure which, but it would be nice to see something different from her. Overall, the acting in the film was good.
Always good to see Blu
I’m not sure what it is, but for films like this, which are super colorful, the HD just seems to seep and settle quite well. This is yet another example of why Blu-ray is the best possible format. It brings the HD and brings out some of the nicest colors to look at. This movie in particular has that movie lot type feel, but has some of the most spectacular lighting that will make you happy you own an HD set. My favorite part is when Bruce is reporting on the boat. Sure it’s green screened, but it still looks beautiful. The water shimmers and shines perfectly on set and makes it visual eye candy for your soul. Universal is no stranger to good-looking HD films and this certainly is no exception. As for audio, you get some good stuff here in a remastered DTS-HD mix.
For features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Deleted Scenes
– Outtakes
– Commentary with Director Tom Shadyac
– The Process of Jim
– BD-Live
It’s not the greatest amount in the world, and there really should be more (I would have loved to hear Carrey on the commentary track, or even Morgan Freeman). You get some okay deleted scenes, some pretty funny (not quite hilarious) outtakes and the commentary is worth the insight it gives. As usual, I do encourage you to check out the BD-Live material. It’s worth your time as well.