Bruce Almighty 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: If the results are something less than inspired, they remind us there is godliness in silliness. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Lacks the insane, anything-goes energy this premise deserved. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... on at least three or four occasions, Carrey made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes -- and that's a heck of a trick. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The film, particularly in its first and last third, seems sadly devoid of imagination. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: It's stunning how a movie about someone who gets to be the ultimate high-and-mighty could set its sights so low. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Rambunctiously funny. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Carrey is utterly delightful, whether pulling off some hilarious pratfall or energizing the most mundane piece of dialogue. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Basically, Bruce Almighty is about getting Carrey to stop acting up. But without his misbehaving, there's no movie. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: An unevenness of tone, which becomes manipulative in effect, echoes and compounds the unconvincing look and feel of the entire film. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It's Carrey who must carry this film, and he lifts Bruce Almighty to the heavens. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Very snappy, sweetly moral. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A perfectly respectable Jim Carrey comedy that makes you feel as if you're right back in 1997, watching Liar Liar. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The whole thing reeks of the formulaic, of a carefully packaged bid to propel the star back to his appointed place in the commercial constellation, all the while depriving him of the dark side that got him there in the first place. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Exactly what it looks like: a cute premise extended to feature length, with plenty of opportunity for Mr. Carrey to mug for the camera. Read more

John Powers, L.A. Weekly: It drowns [Carrey's] hilarious physicality in an ocean of sap. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: At the end of the day, Carrey is far more palatable and sincere under a devil's mask than a cardboard halo. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although the movie never quite explores all the heavenly possibilities, it does provide some wicked chuckles. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: When Carrey is doing his thing as the Almighty, histrionically whipping up one miracle after another and relishing the power, Bruce has you spring-cleaning your lungs with laughter. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. Carrey gets some of his biggest laughs in years by playing up the darker side of his character's small-mindedness. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A woefully underwritten motion picture that starts out as a dumb comedy before taking an ill-advised detour into mawkish sentimentality. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A charmer, the kind of movie where Bruce learns that while he may not ever make a very good God, the experience may indeed make him a better television newsman. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The laughs in Bruce Almighty are thinly spread across a vast, bland cake of uplifting sentiment. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Carrey's shtick is beginning to seem tired. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Highly watchable. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Powerfully entertaining. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Carrey seems engaged in a kind of war with his own best comic instincts. Read more

Time Out: Director Shadyac and his three scriptwriters prove much more fallibly flawed than their omnipotent hero. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Everyone is well cast and no one more perfectly than Freeman, who is far more God-like than George Burns ever was. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: There's remarkably little done with a premise snatched from high-concept heaven, adding yet another file to the growing cabinet of under-realized comedies. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: Bruce takes over for the vacationing deity, but despite an initial surge of jolly, somewhat cruel chaos (as when he forces the new anchor to unreel paragraphs of gibberish on camera), things soon turn soggy. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: [Carrey] is so gifted a physical comedian that even mediocre material shines in his talented hands. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Something between an indiscretion and an atrocity, in the key of that most human yet loathsome of self-indulgences, vanity. Read more