With his dramatic career floundering at the box office, Jim Carrey needed the spotlight back. Carrey tries to revisit his Ace Ventura roots by contorting his body and coining new catchphrases in his new comedy, Bruce Almighty, but none of them hit the mark.
Carrey stars as Bruce, a down-on-his-luck TV reporter who blames God for all of his troubles. When God (Morgan Freeman) gives his powers to Bruce, Bruce goes haywire and tries to right all of the wrongs of his life, until he realizes he is responsible for much more in the world.
Jim Carrey is probably my favorite actor, and while he provides a few great laughs in the film, they are not enough to sustain this film. The concept is good, but the jokes are pretty bland. Carrey tries to revisit the type of comedy that he and Shadyac were successful with in Ace Ventura, but the lame attempts at funny catchphrases and animal humor are groan-inducing.
The film succeeds when its jokes reach the absurdity of its plot (Carrey dumping milk on a line of children) or whenever Shadyac is smart enough to let The Daily Show's Steve Carrell get some screentime.
The movie's highly touted co-stars, Freeman and Jennifer Aniston, seem to sleepwalk through their performance. Aniston gets no jokes, and Freeman plays a boring God. High-concept comedies have never seemed so average.
