Bruce Almighty lacks power to please
The worst three movies I've paid money to see in the last several years are, "from the bottom up," "Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo," "The Royal Tenenbaums," and now, "Bruce Almighty."
Good God! (No pun intended). Jim Carrey is a talented man. He must need a better agent, or better friends, career advisers.
He's made some really bad career moves (movies). This one is about a guy who gets to play God (literally) for a week. It has some funny moments, but overall, it's a turkey.
It tries to be similar to "It's a Wonderful Life," but it just doesn't cut it. Carrey is good, but it's a lame script and story. The only really good things in it are Morgan Freeman's performance as God, a la George Burns, Tony Bennett singing "If I Ruled the World," and the photography of Buffalo, N.Y., where the movie, about an unhappy, feckless television news reporter (Carrey) who is stuck doing "cutesy" features, is set. Jennifer Aniston, as Carrey's long-suffering girlfriend, is good, playing with type, still pretty much "Rachel Green" from "Friends."
The 2003 remake of "The In-Laws" is much better and funnier. OK, it's nutty, but so what. At least it provokes some laughter. Alan Arkin and Peter Falk were in the original version, back in the 70s. This remake is better and funnier than the original.
Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas are the in-laws this time, with settings in Chicago, Canada, and France. That's all I will say, so as not to ruin it for you, should you choose to see it.
Oh, one more thing, though, as Falk's "Columbo" might say: The homosexual-hating homosexual French mercenary/billionaire/arms dealer is funny, as played by an actor I do not know, and whose name I did not catch even in the credits roll at the film's end, but who looks like a young Sean Connery.
His mincing and his attraction to Brooks's character are pretty darned funny.
I saw the Ozark Mountain Daredevils in concert in April 1978 at Hays, at Fort Hays State U.'s Gross Memorial Coliseum. It was a good show.
Saturday's 9 p.m. Central Park Chingawassa Days concert here by the band promises to be a good one, too.
"I never read it in a book, I never saw it in a show; but I heard it in the alley, now it's in my rock 'n' roll." — (from "If You Wanna Go to Heaven," an early OMD hit).
— JERRY BUXTON
