Hey folks, Harry here... When I fell into a deeply comfortable coma, yesterday afternoon, I believe Father Geek seized the opportunity to avoid "another stupid inane retarded piece of shit Jim Carrey comedies" as he fondly refers to them. He loathes the Pet Detective period of Jim Carrey's career - and when he saw me sleeping, he felt it was providence... My coma was a blessing sent by the tiny gods that live amongst the blades of grass surrounding our castle here at Geek HQ. After having read Quint's lackluster account of the amusing film that followed... frankly I don't think I missed out on much. If laughs are what you want... I recommend checking out DOWN WITH LOVE.
Ahoy, squirts. 'Tis everybody's favorite crusty ol' seaman Quint, here with a look BRUCE ALMIGHTY, Jim Carrey's return to the glory of piss and shit jokes. Now, I love piss and shit and dick and fart jokes like no one's business. From PORKY'S to THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY to the recent SUPER TROOPERS... Good stuff. Always guarantees a laugh from me.
BRUCE ALMIGHTY doesn't really fall into the gross humor category... As my buddy Kraken pointed out after the movie, BRUCE ALMIGHTY is more "the comedy with heart" type film. I do like those kinds of films and I did laugh during the film, but I could never really get into it.
Jim Carrey's performance is effortless. He knows comedic timing and he knows he knows. His confidence in the film is apparent from frame one. Carrey plays a low level TV News Reporter hoping for that coveted News Anchor position. Unfortunately he's always stuck covering the puff pieces and all the juicy news goes to his competitor, The Daily Show's Steven Carell who is hilarious every time he's onscreen.
Carrey's dissatisfied with his life. He has a loving girlfriend (played by Jennifer Aniston), but is too frustrated by his zero job progression to give her the attention she deserves. He ends up having a terrible day... A day from hell. Job is gone. Dog keeps pissing on the furniture. He gets beaten up by a gang. He crashes his car. He's had enough and he ends up taking out his frustrations by screaming at God.
God (Morgan Freeman, in a brilliant casting move) hears and decides to teach him a lesson by giving him his powers and letting him feel the responsibility of being God. Whacky hijinks ensue.
While there are some great laughs, which come most frequently when he first gains his powers, a lot of the movie fell flat for me. I'm no art house snob, but this film really did feel cookie-cutter Hollywood PG-13 comedy. It doesn't really take any chances with its humor, never making any real satire or doing things that haven't been done before, with the one exception of the Monkey scene. Monkeys and midgets are comedy gold and they make a fantastic double visual gag with a monkey that is by far my favorite scene of the film.
The film is very predictable, very light and at times a tad bit preachy. It may just be my heathen ways rejecting the truth and the light, I'll grant you that... I mean what else would I expect with a comedy about God and his powers? Especially one that works as both comedy and message film. I was just pulled out of the film a couple times is all.
My main problem really lies with its predictability. You know from the very first scene what's going to happen. The rules of being God are set up ("You can't say you're god" - Although that seems a bullshit rule as Morgan Freeman had no trouble announcing to Bruce that he was God - and "You can't interfere with free choice.") and any doubts you may have had about where the movie is heading become instantly clear. So you just end up waiting for the plot points you know are coming.
They also try to throw in a bit about how some of the funny shows of power Carrey does in the film, like pulling the moon closer to his window so he can turn on Jennifer Aniston, impact the rest of the world. There's a bit on the news the next day about flooding due to strange lunar conditions happening in third world countries. But then he doesn't do anything about it, so any point they were trying to make just falls flat. It's like they had the courage to propose these questions about power and responsibility, but then gloss over it opting to make a relationship commentary instead.
The performances in the film are all very good and fit the story, but none are really stand outs. There aren't any truly fantastic gags in the movie, but then again there aren't any offensively bad ones either. To me this film kept in the middle of the road, weaving like a car driven by an amalgam of Christian Slater, Nick Nolte, Scary Busey and Michael J. Fox, from time to time drifting over into very funny and other times drifting over to wavy-hand territory.
The film is enjoyable. Kraken and the rest of the audience were very taken with it. I enjoyed myself, but I won't buy BRUCE ALMIGHTY on DVD. I might watch it again on late night cable if I'm bored. I would watch DOWN WITH LOVE a dozen more times before I see BRUCE ALMIGHTY again. I thought DOWN WITH LOVE was a very smart and slick comedy where BRUCE ALMIGHTY is the entertaining, but hollow mainstream comedy.
In closing, something can be said that I did laugh pretty frequently during BRUCE ALMIGHTY. It is a comedy and it did make me laugh. It might be my hatred of most of screenwriter Steve Oedekerk's sense of humor (if I have to see another one of his THUMB movies I'll be struck violently retarded and hunt Oedekerk down drooling all the way), but I don't think so. I do enjoy ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS, which he both wrote and directed... The movie's just too cookie cutter for my tastes, I guess. Call me MIXED/SLIGHTLY POSITIVE on this one.
After reading the script, I'm absolutely dying to see ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND and Jim Carrey's performance therein. Jim Carrey doing Charlie Kaufman is about the most interesting marriage of comedy I can think of. 'Til then, you have BRUCE ALMIGHTY to enjoy... It's fun, but I'd recommend a MATINEE screening. Don't feel bad for Carrey or Universal... From the look of the line at the screening tonight, they're all going to make crazy money on this film... Matinee or give your money to DOWN WITH LOVE.
At any rate, I'd better get going. I'm about to embark on a month long journey, folks, so I might be MIA for a while. I'll try to keep in touch and might have some very interesting things to tell you. 'Til then this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
