Let There Be Movies

Review By Eric

Bruce Almighty is a comedy about Bruce Nolan. Bruce is a news anchor and feels that his life is falling apart. When things start to go wrong Bruce does what many of us have done at least once in their life. He says, “if I was God I would do things differently”. This is easy for any of us to do. When we feel that things are not going the way they should we want to play God, we want the control. It is important to remember Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God is God and he is in control. He can see the big picture and we cannot. Bruce gets to meet God, played by Morgan Freeman, and Bruce’s prayer is answered. God gives Bruce all the powers of God. Bruce then does what I think every human being would do once they were given all the power of God, he uses it for his own selfish desires! Throughout the movie Bruce focuses on what he needs and wants. Earlier we see him blow off his girlfriend, Grace (Jennifer Aniston), who wants his help with a photo project. Bruce, like a lot of us, misses what is right in front of him. What he wants is right there, but he is blinded by what he THINKS he wants and his selfishness to see it.

There is a funny part when Bruce tries to answer everyone’s prayers he organizes them into emails. He gets frustrated by the volume of prayers and answers them all with a yes. Of course this causes some problems, like everyone that prayed to win the lottery wins. This is another great reminder for us Christians that not everything we pray for should be answered with a yes. Wouldn’t the God that knew us before we were formed in our mothers’ womb (Jeremiah 1:5) also know what’s best for us? Matthew 6:26 says “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” God will provide us what we truly need. He provided us his Son, Jesus Christ, because we needed saved from our own sin.

Bruce of course finally sees the errors of his way and strives to be better.

I like this movie for its entertainment value and its humor, but the language is a little rough for its PG-13 rating. It also concerns me that a movie about God, even a comedy, leaves out Jesus completely. It a lot of ways how God is portrayed reminds me of those people who say things like, “I believe there is a God, but other than that I don’t know.” God never takes Bruce to task for living with and fornicating with his girlfriend, he never questions a lot of poor moral divisions that Bruce makes. So watch it because it’s funny not for its theology. It’s a good watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

I give this movie a 3/5