Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty is a 2003 American religious comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk.

Premise
Bruce Nolan's career in TV has been stalled for a while, and when he's passed over for a coveted anchorman position, he loses it, complaining that God is treating him poorly. Soon after, God actually contacts Bruce and offers him all of his powers if he thinks he can do a better job. Bruce accepts and goes on a spree, using his new-found abilities for selfish, personal use until he realizes that the prayers of the world are going unanswered.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The premise of a news reporter becoming popular after getting God's powers is a very original one.
 * 2) Great acting, especially by the main cast:
 * 3) Jim Carrey's acting genius is shown again in this movie as he portrays Bruce Nolan greatly, if not perfect.
 * 4) Morgan Freeman as God is an iconic performance that showcases his acting ability well, aside from becoming a popular Internet meme.
 * 5) A load of heartwarming, emotional scenes like the scene where Bruce tries to have his girlfriend, Grace, back in his life after a serious breakup.
 * 6) There are also a lot of funny jokes in the movie that make you laugh so much that if you're drinking something, it's actually gonna come out of your nose.
 * 7) It was a commercial success when it released. It was even ranked as the 5th highest grossing movie of 2003.
 * 8) It was pretty cool seeing Bruce try out God's powers as making one of the mobsters who beat him up have a monkey come out of his bottom.
 * 9) Bruce also got the chance to become news anchor for a while after embarrassing his rival, Evan Baxter. Even though what he did was pretty cruel.
 * 10) The moral of not complaining about your life no matter how mad you are of it is heartwarming, but simple.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) As if the scene where Bruce tortures Evan on Live TV wasn't cruel enough, in a deleted scene, Bruce gave Evan a nose bleed and then catches his hair on fire.
 * 2) As mentioned above, the moral was pretty simple.

Videos
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Critical Response
The film received mostly mixed reviews from critics and moviegoers. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 48% based on 193 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Carrey is hilarious in the slapstick scenes, but Bruce Almighty gets bogged down in treacle." On Metacritic, it has a score of 46 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

Trivia

 * It was considered the first movie with Steve Carell having a major role.
 * The film was banned in Egypt and Malaysia due the portrayal of God as an ordinary man, and was lifted after the censorship board gave the highest ratings (18-PL in the case of Malaysia).
 * Jim Carrey often insisted on doing upwards of thirty takes of some scenes.
 * The address for God's company, 77256 23rd Street, spells Psalm 23 when dialed on a phone.