Bruce Almighty

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Bruce Almighty
Bruce Almighty film poster
Directed by	Tom Shadyac
Produced by	Gary Barber Roger Birnbaum
Written by	Steve Koren (story/script) Mark O'Keefe (story/script) Steve Oedekerk (script)
Starring	Jim Carrey Morgan Freeman Jennifer Aniston Philip Baker Hall
Music by	John Debney
Distributed by	Universal Studios (USA) Buena Vista Distribution/Touchstone Pictures (non-USA)
Release date(s)	May 23, 2003
Running time	101 min.
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Followed by	Evan Almighty (2007)
IMDb profile

Bruce Almighty (2003) is a comedy movie directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. It stars Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston. Steve Carell, Catherine Bell, Lisa Ann Walter, and Philip Baker Hall co-star. Tony Bennett and "Juan Valdez" make cameo appearances. This is the third film collaboration between Jim Carrey and Tom Shadyac, the first two being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Liar, Liar.

When the film was released in American theaters in late May 2003, it took the #1 spot at the box office, raking in $85.7 million, higher than the release of Pearl Harbor, making it the highest-rated Memorial Day weekend opening of any film in motion picture history until the release of X-Men: The Last Stand over Memorial Day 2006. ^[1] By the time it left theaters in December 2003, it took in a United States domestic total of over $242 million and over $562 million worldwide, breaking records as the highest-grossing live action comedy ever.^[2]

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Controversy and reaction
- 3.1 Telephone numbers
4 Sequel
5 Cast and crew
- 5.1 Cast
- 5.2 Crew
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a TV news reporter at Eyewitness News Channel 7 in Buffalo, New York (WKBW-TV) who fails to get a job as an anchorman and, after a series of other bad luck incidents, complains to God that he is treating him unfairly and is doing a poor job as supreme deity. Bruce is then contacted by God (Morgan Freeman) and endowed with almighty powers to prove that he can do a better job. Bruce quickly abuses his new-found powers for personal gain, only to be reminded that he also has to take care of other people's problems. Meanwhile, Bruce endangers his relationship with girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) through his self-centered behavior. In the end, Bruce realizes that God's powers are best left for God to handle and graciously asks for God to take control of his life.

The movie portrays God as a wise, but smart-alec middle-aged man. God quotes a line from one of Carrey's other movies ("Alrighty then", from Ace Ventura), and tells Bruce that if he wants, Bruce can fix all the world's problems in a few minutes, knowing full well from millennia of experience that he cannot. God is also cast in a sort of sympathetic light. Bruce receives hundreds of millions of prayers, all from, according to God, his single town. Having to listen to the prayers of the whole world, one can only imagine how God feels. Bruce is thus able to realize just how much work God must do to keep creation "in line." As Bruce and God themselves put it in two scenes:

Bruce: How do you make so many people love you without affecting free will?
God: Welcome to my world.

And a second scene over prayers

God: You made a mess of things, huh?
Bruce: I just gave them what they wanted. [Bruce had answered YES to all his prayers]
God: Yeah, but since when does anyone know what they want?

At the end of the movie, God causes Bruce to talk to get hit by a truck so they can talk in Heaven. After Bruce asks for Grace to find a man to make her truly happy, God brings Bruce back to life and has Grace return to him at the hospital. In the end, Bruce has changed his outlook on life - he is happy with the meager stories he covers, gives blood to help others, and marries Grace.

[edit] Trivia

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The film was shot in the same locations as the Back to the Future films as seen in the sequence of the town going crazy (although the familiar clock tower clock has been covered) and the scene with Grace jogging was shot on the same street as the one in Back to the Future where Marty McFly followed his 1955 father to Lorraine's house.
The day care center that Grace works at is set in the same school that was used in Liar Liar, one of Carrey's other films, which was also released by Universal.
Jim Carrey owns the Saleen S7 supercar that he drove in the movie.
The UK poster for the movie was The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but with Carrey in Adam's place.
As Bruce ascends the staircase at the party, he has a container of water in his right hand and turns it into wine as it enters the glass in his left hand.
In the film Juan Valdez appear with his donkey Conchita, promoting Café de Colombia.
After they finish mopping up the floor, God comments, "Alrighty then." Jim Carrey's Ace Ventura character says the exact same thing.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Controversy and reaction

The movie was banned in Egypt due to pressure from Islamic religious circuits who objected to the portrayal of God in the form of a human being.
There were also rigorous protests from a small, but vocal, faction of the otherwise liberal Muslim population in Malaysia. The government did not outlaw its screening, and Bruce Almighty still appears occasionally, albeit heavily edited, on Malaysian satellite television.
Some contend that Robert Bausch, author of the book Almighty Me, is the original creator of the Bruce Almighty storyline, citing similarities between the book and movie. Bausch had no credit toward officially creating the story.
In Iran, the movie was interpreted in the light of Twelver Shiism—the predominant branch of Islam practiced in the country. The appearance of Morgan Freeman's character at the end echoes the prophesied return of the 12th Imam.^[3]

The movie received mostly positive reviews, and took in nearly $243 million, making it Jim Carrey's most successful film since 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (also released by Universal).

[edit] Telephone numbers

The film caused controversy because God contacts Bruce using an actual phone number rather than a number in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange. The original telephone number was 776-2323 [1]no area code was included. Several people and groups sharing this number have received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God. Oddly enough, some of the calls went to a church located in Sanford, North Carolina whose pastor also shared the same first name as the Jim Carrey character in the movie. [2]

The producers note that the number chosen was not in use in the area the film is set in, but did not check anywhere else. The DVD and television versions changed the display of the pager to 555-0123, and the voice that says "Why, hello, 555-0123" is not that of Jim Carrey.

Anyone seeking a deeper significance in the numbers 776-2323 will be disappointed to hear that they are but a tongue-in-cheek reference to a staple of conspiracy theorists all over the world, namely the Illuminati - who were supposedly founded in the year 1776 and put special mystical significance on the numbers 17 and 23. As a strange coincidence, Jim Carrey will be starring in the 2007 thriller, The Number 23. $17 was also the amount of money won by multiple lottery winners in the film.