Can the religious criticism, this is only a comedy

Rating: Null/10 (12 December 2003)

SPOILERS (Although lets be honest, it's not like you didn't expect these before the film even started)
"Bruce Almighty" is Jim Carrey's attempt to return to his face twisting, funny guy ways, and by his standards, I quite like it. In this film, Carrey plays Bruce Nolan, a News Reporter who dreams of that elusive Anchor slot. After an awful day, Bruce curses and swears at God, until eventually God answers. God (played without any real effort by Morgan Freeman) blesses/curses Bruce with his powers and sends him out into the real world to experience the ultimate job. Bruce sets off straight away to fix his life and only ends up making parts of it worse. By the end, most of what you'd expect to happen, happens, and you finish watching the film feeling like you've just watched any regular none descript comedy, which ironically, is what you have done.
Let's get this straight right away, "Bruce Almighty" would never win any awards, it was never meant to. This film is there for you to relax to one night and be able to shut your mind off whilst watching. Carrey performs in his old style, and whilst he infuriates me in so many of his films, in this I found myself actually warming to his character. Carrey is a good actor, we saw that in "The Truman Show", and in this he shows in a few scenes how emotional he can be.
Other than Carrey, what else can be said about this film? Not much really. The script is at times hilarious, at times sickeningly sweet, but ultimately satisfying, the other actors acceptable, and the message simply that if you want something, you've got to work for it.
Some people really hate this film, and whilst I can appreciate that Carrey might infuriate them, I just don't get why someone would detest this so much? It's nothing special for sure, but it's by no means awful either.
I suppose the one thing which, looking back on it, really makes me laugh about this film is how so many people on this website have made comments about religion. I mean, yeah this film is about a guy who becomes God for a few days, but ultimately, it never had to be God. God is a recognisable, easy to explain figure, but really Bruce could have got his powers from anybody. All this film ever needed to do was allow us to sit back, relax, and show us that (to quote Spiderman) with great power comes great responsibility. That's all.
If you choose to watch this film, and I recommend you should, leave your brain outside as it isn't needed. "Bruce Almighty" is simply another chilled out film for a family to watch on a night in together. It's by no means the best film of 2003 (not even close), but at the same time, it's by no means the worst. You get what you pay for and that's really the best way to summarise. Enjoy!