Bruce Almighty

This topic contains:

• details about Bruce Almighty's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Bruce Almighty completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 11 June 2003.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Bruce Almighty contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message
• overall comments

A synopsis of the story

Bruce Nolan is a comedic journalist who gets all the ‘light’ stories but longs to be a serious news anchor. He lives with his girlfriend Grace and their dog. Bruce misses out on a promotion at work and then messes up an interview causing him to lose his job. Bruce blames God for all his misfortunes and gets angry with Him. God in turn decides it’s time for a holiday and says that Bruce can have His job if he thinks he can do it better. There are only two rules: he can’t reveal he is 'God' and he can’t “mess with free will”. Bruce then proceeds to have a marvellous time using God’s powers to his own benefit: taking revenge on those who have wronged him; getting a better car; improving his romantic and sex life with Grace including enlarging her breasts; and toilet training the dog.

Bruce has difficulty keeping up with all the prayer requests so devises a system whereby all prayers go through a computer system. There are still millions of them so Bruce takes the easy option and just answers yes to all. This creates havoc as people everywhere are winning the lottery and receiving all their wants. In the meantime Bruce loses favour with Grace and finds he can’t win back her love as he can’t change her free will. Bruce finally falls on his knees and surrenders to God’s will. However he is in the middle of the road and is hit by a truck, dies and goes to heaven. When he has a talk to God he asks unselfishly for Grace’s happiness. God gives Bruce another chance at life and things work out quite differently this time.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

There are a few violent scenes in this movie including:

• Bruce is beaten up by a gang when he comes to the aid of a homeless man
• A police dog is shown being trained to attack someone.
• Mostly the violence is set in a comic context such as:
• God’s filing cabinet opens violently and extends across the floor of the room pushing Bruce with it.
• Bruce makes a monkey come out of one of the street gang’s ‘butt’ and makes it re-enter.
• A meteor is shown crashing to the Earth and leaves a large crater.
• Scenes of anarchy and street rioting are shown when everyone has their prayers answered.

Material that may scare children

Under seven

Children in this age bracket are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

There is not much in this film that is actually scary but the violent scenes mentioned above might frighten or confuse children in this age group.

Over the age of seven

Children aged seven to twelve are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened. Children over the age of twelve are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children over the age of seven would probably not be scared by anything in this movie.

Sexual references

There are a few sexual references including:

• Bruce causes a gust of wind to blow a woman’s skirt up revealing her underwear.
• Bruce makes Grace’s breasts larger which she comments on.

Nudity and sexual activity

Bruce uses his powers to make Grace become sexually aroused; he strips down to his underwear and they embrace and kiss passionately. Sex is implied but now shown.

Use of substances

There is drinking of alcohol at a party and at home. Bruce plants a load of marijuana on a film crew so that they are arrested.

Coarse language

There is quite a bit of coarse language including the following words:

• shit
• asshole
• bastard
• ass
• fuckers (used once)
• Bruce tells God “he sucks”
• crap
• prick.

The movie's message

The take home message of this movie is that having everything you want does not necessarily bring you happiness.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• thinking of others before one’s self
• ‘God’ says that “a teenager who says no to drugs and yes to an education is a miracle”.
• taking responsibility for one’s actions.
• Values parents may wish to discourage include:
• selfishness
• irresponsibility
• seeing women as sex objects.

Overall comments

This is a film that adults and teenagers could enjoy. It is very funny in parts and is respectful in its dealings with God and man, not irreverent. Jim Carrey is very entertaining and his rival co- worker played by Steven Carell also has a funny part to play which he does really well. While the toilet humour won’t appeal to some, it is overall entertaining.