Bruce Allrighty

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2003)

Bruce Allrighty!
Can you believe I stooped to that goofy `play on words' review title that often plagues those other movie reviewers? What is happening to me? Ah, screw it. The important thing is, that funny S.O.B. seems to have done it again. My jaw was sore from laughing at Bruce Almighty.
Jim Carrey's latest comedy is about a goofy TV news reporter who's mad at the world after he's passed over for the News Anchor job that he so desperately wanted at his TV station. So mad that he seems to forget about the great life he has with his girlfriend, so mad that he directs his attention to God, whom he accuses of doing a crappy job. This time, God (Morgan Freeman) decides to fight back, temporarily giving Bruce his job while he takes a vacation.
Jennifer Anniston is great as Bruce's live-in girlfriend, the aptly named `Grace,' and the rest of the cast is dead-on too. All pistons seem to be firing in this one. Although I did not actually read the script, I can tell it was extremely well-worked. No stone was left unturned, as they say. And why shouldn't it be? The writers are seasoned veterans who've banged around the comedy trenches for years. We're talking Seinfeld, Newsradio, SNL, Politically Incorrect, The Late Show with David Letterman, trust me, your funny bone is in good hands.
If you give any thought to the set-up I just laid out, you can tell that Bruce is probably going to screw things up pretty badly, maybe lose the girl, maybe get the girl back, all that jazz, learn a few things about himself, but this film reminded me of why Hollywood still makes the best movies, yeah, I talk a lot of trash, but we got the world's number as far as movies go. How's that? By telling a story you've seen a hundred times, with an ending you've seen a hundred times, teaching characters' lessons they've learned a hundred times, but making it completely fresh, moving, and most importantly: FUNNY.
I drove up to The Wood to see this one (not Inglewood, Hollywood that is), at the Grove, off of Fairfax, and I had a while to ruminate on the way home to my secret underground compound in Long Beach, and I thought that this movie might have parallels to Jim Carrey, the man. You see, Bruce is a wacky news guy who thinks he wants to be a respected, serious news anchor, but his real talent lies with making people laugh as the wacky news reporter, and he was great at it. If any of you saw the The Majestic (not a bad movie, mind you, but it was syrupy enough for a truck load of pancakes) which was his foray into a more straight, dramatic role, you might have found yourself wishing Jim would concentrate on doing what he does best, and it's no small feat, putting smiles on millions of faces who need one. Maybe he's gotten that serious anchor man out of his system, frankly, they're a dime a dozen, but true gut-busters like Jim Carrey don't grow on trees.
-Mil Peliculas
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