Funny in parts but too mawkish by half.. SPOILERS

Rating: 5/10 (24 June 2005)

Jim Carrey is a funny guy. I've seen him in a lot of productions, and he has never failed to make me chuckle. This role is no exception, he has several hilarious moments involving his new-found mystical god powers, including when his partner gets an unrequested prompt boob job, he forces a girl's skirt up in the street and the whole business with the alphabet soup in the cafe. But for me, by far the greatest part in the film is where he loses it on a boat after finding out a rival anchorman has beaten him to a top job, his facial expressions and bitter, twisted attitude to everybody around him are priceless. Yep, for the first 45 minutes or so, life is good and the movie is consistently amusing.
Alas, when we get to the middle of this particular morsel we discover a very gooey centre. Not a nice, sweet taste but a horrible, saccharine concoction that will send all self-respecting diabetics into sugar shock. The script requires Jim to experience a 'spiritual reawakening', so he stops messing about with his abilities and starts using them responsibly to help those less fortunate than him. This may be a laudable aim, but it sucks all the humour out of the proceedings like an extra-strong vacuum cleaner. We begin to wonder if we are watching an after-school special rather than a comedy, and the film is derailed irrevocably. Patricularly painful is the "Answering Wishes On The PC" sequence, which may seem warm and tender to some but to me the cloying sentimentality almost made me taste breakfast again. Mind you, at this point you get the impression that the unimaginative screenplay writers had run out of decent jokes anyway.
Morgan Freeman has a couple of unimpressive cameo appearances as the Lord, Jennifer Aniston is largely wasted as our hero's long suffering partner and there are more dodgy dog jokes than you can shake a stick at (Arf, Arf). And of course the ending is happy, as our protagonist learns that he must not take life for granted and to treasure those that are close to him. He even apologises to those who treated him like a jerk in the first place. Give me a break!! What a pathetic, sappy little man he is.. and how hard it is to care about his fate or build up sympathy for his plight. Sorry Jim, you had me at first, but you really went and blew this one. Next time, try and cut down on the cheese, and just concentrate on making us LAUGH. Not too much to ask, is it now? 5/10