Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tom Shadyac
Screenplay by	Steve Koren Mark O'Keefe Steve Oedekerk
Story by	Steve Koren Mark O'Keefe
Produced by	Tom Shadyac Jim Carrey[1] James D. Brubaker Michael Bostick Steve Koren Mark O'Keefe
Starring	Jim Carrey Morgan Freeman Jennifer Aniston Philip Baker Hall
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Edited by	Scott Hill
Music by	John Debney
Production companies	Spyglass Entertainment Shady Acres Pit Bull Productions[1]
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (United States) Buena Vista International (International)[2][3]
Release date	May 14, 2003 (2003-05-14) (Hollywood) May 23, 2003 (2003-05-23) (United States)
Running time	101 minutes[4]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$81 million[5]
Box office	$484.6 million[5]

Bruce Almighty is a 2003 American comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God (played by Morgan Freeman) that he is not doing his job correctly and is offered the chance to try being God himself for one week. The film is Shadyac and Carrey's third collaboration, as they had worked together previously on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1994 and Liar Liar in 1997. It co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall and Steve Carell.

When released in American theaters on May 23, 2003, Bruce Almighty opened to mixed reviews from critics, but was a box-office success and grossed $85.9 million, making it the top Memorial Day opening weekend of any film in history at the time.^[6] The film surprised film pundits when it beat The Matrix Reloaded the following weekend. By the end of its theatrical run, the film had made $242 million domestically and a total $484 million worldwide, making it Carrey’s highest grossing film worldwide, as well as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2003.

Evan Almighty, a spin-off sequel focusing on Steve Carell's character, with Shadyac and Oedekerk returning to direct and write, and Freeman also reprising his role, was released on June 22, 2007.

Plot[]

Bruce Nolan is a television field reporter for Eyewitness News on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, but desires to be the news anchorman. When Bruce is passed over for promotion by his rival, Evan Baxter, he becomes furious, his actions leading to his dismissal from the station, followed by a series of misfortunes. Bruce takes his anger out on God and complains that "He's the one that should be fired".

Bruce receives a message on his pager, which takes him to an empty warehouse where he meets God. God offers to give Bruce His powers to prove that he is doing the job correctly. God tells Bruce that he cannot tell others he has God's powers, nor can he use the powers to alter free will. Bruce is initially jubilant with the powers, using them for personal gain, such as exposing a womans panties, getting his job back, and impressing his girlfriend, Grace Connelly. Bruce finds ways of using his powers around Buffalo to cause miraculous events to occur at otherwise mundane events that he covers, such as discovering Jimmy Hoffa's body or causing a meteor to harmlessly land near a cook-off, earning him the name "Mr. Exclusive". Bruce then causes Evan to embarrass himself on-air, causing Evan to be fired in favor of Bruce as the new anchor. During this, Bruce continues to hear voices in his head. He later re-encounters God, who explains that the voices are prayers, meant for God, that Bruce must deal with. Bruce creates a computerized email-like system to receive the prayers and respond but finds that the influx is far too many for him to handle—even though God has stated that Bruce is only receiving prayers from a section of the Buffalo area—and sets the program to answer every prayer Yes automatically.

Bruce attends a party celebrating his promotion. When Grace arrives, she finds Bruce kissing his co-anchor, Susan Ortega, after she forcefully comes on to him, and quickly leaves. Bruce follows her, trying to use his powers to convince her to stay but cannot influence her free will. As Bruce looks around, he realizes that Buffalo has fallen into chaos due to his actions: parts of the city believe the Apocalypse is nearly upon Earth due to the meteor strikes, while a large number of people, all having prayed to win the multi-million dollar lottery and finding they all won reducing their prize to a few dollars, have started rioting in the streets. Bruce returns to God, who explains that He cannot solve all the problems and Bruce must figure out a way himself. Bruce then goes about helping people without using his powers, including giving Evan his job back. As Bruce reads through the prayers on his computer, he finds several from Grace, wishing for his success and well-being. As Bruce reads it, another prayer from Grace arrives, this one wishing to not be in love with him anymore.

Bruce is stunned and walks alone on a highway, asking God to take back his powers and letting his fate be in his hands. Bruce is suddenly hit by a truck and regains his consciousness in a white void. God appears, and He asks Bruce what he really wants; Bruce admits that he only wants to make sure Grace finds a man that would make her happy. God agrees and brings Bruce back to life. Bruce wakes up and finds himself in the hospital. Grace arrives shortly after. She and Bruce rekindle their relationship, and later become engaged. Following his recovery, Bruce returns to field reporting, but decides to take more pleasure in off-beat news stories.

Cast[]

Production[]

The Shoin building at the Japanese Garden in L.A. was used as the spa

Filming of Buffalo was done in the "New York Street" at Universal Studios Hollywood. The restaurant with Tony Bennett was filmed at Cicada, in the James Oviatt Building, downtown Los Angeles.^[7] The spa scene with Jennifer Aniston was filmed in the Shoin building at The Japanese Garden in Los Angeles.

Reception[]

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."^[8] On Metacritic, it has a score of 46 out of 100 , based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."^[9]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, calling it: "A charmer, the kind of movie where Bruce learns that while he may not ever make a very good God, the experience may indeed make him a better television newsman." Ebert praised Aniston's performance: "Aniston, as a sweet kindergarten teacher and fiancee, shows again (after "The Good Girl") that she really will have a movie career."^[10]

Variety's Robert Koehler gave the film a mixed review: "There's remarkably little done with a premise snatched from high-concept heaven, adding yet another file to the growing cabinet of under-realized comedies."^[11]

The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2003 and topped the country's box office that weekend.^[12]

The Los Angeles Times gave it a negative review and called it "not so mighty."^[13]

Controversies[]

The film was banned in Egypt because of its portrayal of God as an ordinary man. Bans in both Malaysia and Egypt were eventually lifted after the nations' censorship boards gave the film their highest rating (18-PL in the case of Malaysia).^[14][15]

As God contacts Bruce using an actual phone number rather than one in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange, several people and groups sharing this number received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God, including a church in North Carolina, US (where the minister was named Bruce), a pastor in northern Wisconsin and a man running a sandwich shop in Manchester, England.^[16] The producers noted that the number (776-2323) was not in use in the area code (716, which was never specified on screen) in the film's story, but did not check anywhere else. For the home-video and television versions of the film, the number was changed to the fictional 555-0123.^[17][16]

Spin-off sequel[]

A stand-alone sequel and spin-off titled Evan Almighty was released on June 22, 2007, with Steve Carell reprising his role as Evan Baxter and Morgan Freeman returning to his role as God. Although Shadyac returned to direct the sequel, neither Carrey nor Aniston was involved with the film, and Carrey's character Bruce is never mentioned in the film. The film was a critical and commercial failure.

Accolades[]

Soundtrack[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[18]

The soundtrack was released on June 3, 2003 by Varèse Sarabande. Tracks 8-13 are from the score composed by John Debney, performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony (conducted by Pete Anthony) with Brad Dechter and Sandy De Crescent.

Track listing

1. "One of Us" - Joan Osborne
2. "God Shaped Hole" - Plumb
3. "You're a God" - Vertical Horizon
4. "The Power" - Snap!
5. "A Little Less Conversation" - Elvis vs. JXL
6. "The Rockafeller Skank" - Fatboy Slim
7. "God Gave Me Everything" - Mick Jagger featuring Lenny Kravitz
8. "AB Positive"
9. "Walking on Water"
10. "Seventh at Seven"
11. "Bruce Meets God"
12. "Bruce's Prayer"
13. "Grace's Prayer"

Adaptations[]

• God Tussi Great Ho
• Evan Almighty, a follow-up film starring Steve Carell instead of Carrey
• The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, a spin-off documentary television series starring Morgan Freeman

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bruce Almighty

• Official website
• Bruce Almighty at IMDb
• Bruce Almighty at AllMovie
• Bruce Almighty at Box Office Mojo
• Bruce Almighty at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bruce Almighty at Metacritic