unrealized potential

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2004)

This movie really ought to have been funnier. It's not that it's a great premise - it's pretty daft, actually - but it's a workable premise. You've got Carrey with ultimate power, which offers all sorts of opportunities for humor. Yet the film rarely made it above mildly amusing and often couldn't even manage that. I think much of the problem was the movie was torn between wanting to be funny versus wanting to be touching and profound (since they throw in a scene from It's a Wonderful Life I tend to suspect they were hoping for something with that feel). The end result is a movie that fails to succeed comedically or emotionally. Bruce is not an especially sympathetic character, he's so petty and self centered that it's hard to take much of an interest in his problems or his life or his decisions. I thought Freeman made a pretty decent Lord Almighty and the bits with the dog were cute, and it wasn't so bad that I gave up on it, but it's really a movie where you just wonder, why did they even bother making this?