Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty (2003) is a high-grossing comedy movie directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. It stars Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston.

Steve Carell, Catherine Bell, and Philip Baker Hall co-star. Tony Bennett and "Juan Valdez" make cameo appearances.

The tagline of the movie is In Bruce We Trust? Another, lesser seen tagline was The guy next door just became The Man upstairs. The catchphrase from this film was "It's goood" as spoken by Jim Carrey in the film.

When the film was released in theaters in late May 2003, it took the #1 spot at the box office, racking in $85.7 million, higher than the release of Pearl Harbor, making it the highest-rated Memorial Day weekend opening of any film in motion picture history, until the release of The Last Stand over Memorial Day 2006. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1246&p=.htm By the time it left theaters in December 2003, it took in a domestic total of over $342 million and over $562 million worldwide, breaking records as the highest-grossing live action comedy ever.http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:D3JDVpLKm4IJ:www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/%3Fid%3Dbrucealmighty.htm+Bruce+Almighty+weekend+opening&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Plot

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a TV news reporter at Eyewitness News Channel 7 in Buffalo, New York (WKBW-TV) who fails to get a job as an anchorman and, after a series of other bad luck incidents, complains to God that He is treating him unfairly and is doing a poor job as supreme deity. Bruce is then contacted by God (Morgan Freeman) and endowed with almighty powers to prove that he can do a better job. Bruce quickly abuses his new-found powers for personal gain, only to be reminded that he also has to take care of other people's problems. Meanwhile, Bruce endangers his relationship with girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) through his self-centered behavior. In the end, Bruce realizes that God's powers are best left for God to handle and graciously asks for God to take control of his life.

The movie surprisingly features God as a wise, but smart-alec middle-aged man. God quotes a line from one of Carrey's other movies ("Alrighty then", from Ace Ventura), and tells Bruce that if he wants, Bruce can fix all the world in a few minutes, knowing full well from millennia of experience that he cannot. God is also cast in a sort of sympathetic light. Bruce receives hundreds of thousands of millions of prayers, all from, according to God, his single town. Having to listen to the prayers of the whole world, one can only imagine how God feels. Bruce is thus able to realize just how much work God must do to keep creation "in-line." As Bruce and God themselves put it in two scenes:

Bruce: How do you make so many people love you without affecting free will?

God: Welcome to my world.

And a second scene over prayers

God: You made a mess of things, huh?

Bruce: I just gave them what they wanted. answered YES to all his prayers

God: Yeah, but since when does anyone know what they want?

Trivia

The film was shot in the same locations as the Back to the Future films as seen in the sequence of the town going crazy (although the familiar clock tower clock has been covered) and the scene with Grace jogging was shot on the same street as the one in Back to the Future where Marty McFly followed his 1955 father to Lorraine's house.

The international distributor of Bruce Almighty, Buena Vista Distribution, is a corporate sibling to the network affiliation of WKBW-TV, ABC (both BVD and ABC are owned by The Walt Disney Company). WKBW on the other hand, is owned and operated by Granite Broadcasting.
The day care center that Grace works at is set in the same school of that used in Liar Liar, one of Carrey's other films, which was also released by Universal.
Jim Carrey owns the Saleen S7 supercar that he drove in the movie.

Controversy and reaction

The movie was banned in Egypt due to pressure from Islamic religious circuits who objected to the portrayal of God in the form of a human being.
There were also rigorous protests from a small, but vocal, faction of the otherwise liberal Muslim population in Malaysia. The government did not outlaw its screening, and Bruce Almighty still appears occasionally, albeit heavily edited, on Malaysian satellite television.
Some contend that Robert Bausch, author of the book Almighty Me, is the original creator of the Bruce Almighty storyline, citing similarities between the book and movie. Bausch had no credit toward officially creating the story.
In Iran, the movie was interpreted in the light of Twelver Shiism—the predominant branch of Islam practiced in the country. The appearance of Morgan Freeman's character at the end echoes the prophecied return of the 12th Imam.

The movie received relatively positive reviews, and took in nearly $243 million, making it Jim Carrey's most successful film since 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (also released by Universal).

Telephone numbers

The film caused controversy because God contacts Bruce using an actual phone number rather than a number in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange. Several people and groups sharing this number have received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God. The producers note that the number chosen was not in use in the area the film is set in, but did not check anywhere else.

The original telephone number was 776-2323 http://www.joeclark.org/access/cinema/reviews/brucealmighty.html, no area code was included. The DVD and television versions changed the display of the pager to 555-0123, and the voice that says "Why, hello, 555-0123" is not that of Jim Carrey.

Sequel

A sequel with the working title Evan Almighty, is currently in production and features Steve Carell, who had a minor role in Bruce Almighty as Evan, Bruce's rival for the anchor position in the first movie. Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston declined to reprise their roles in the film, although Morgan Freeman returns in his role as God. Production began in early 2006. The movie apparently involves a second great flood, with Evan Baxter (Carell) chosen by God to build an ark to survive it. The sequel co-stars Lauren Graham and John Goodman.

Cast and crew

Cast

Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan
Morgan Freeman as God
Jennifer Aniston as Grace Connelly
Lisa Ann Walter as Debbie
Philip Baker Hall as Jack Baylor
Steve Carell as Evan Baxter
Catherine Bell as Susan Ortega
Sally Kirkland as Anita Mann
Nora Dunn as Ally Loman
Jack Jozefson as the "Homeless Man"

Crew

Director: Tom Shadyac
Writer: Steve Koren
Writer: Mark O'Keefe
Writer: Steve Oedekerk

References

External links

2003 films | American films | San Diego films | English-language films

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Bruce Almighty