Bruce Almighty (5 Stars)

I haven't seen "Bruce Almighty" for at least 16 years, so I was curious to see how it would hold up. The answer is very well indeed. In fact, I'd forgotten just how good it is.

It's a silly film. Very silly in places. Jim Carrey is given the powers of God and naturally proceeds to have enormous fun with them. There are plenty of ridiculous moments and more than once I found myself thinking, "That's silly." But then I realised that the silliness is part of the reason the film works so well. This isn't a film that takes its premise seriously, but it does take its characters seriously.

Bruce is a television reporter who's convinced that God has it in for him. When he's given God's powers, he initially uses them to improve his own life. Why wouldn't he? Then he realises that he should be helping others, so he starts to answer prayers. He soon discovers that being God is more complicated than he imagined. You can't simply make everybody happy, answer every prayer and solve all the world's problems.

That gives the film rather more substance than I remembered. Underneath the comedy there are some surprisingly serious questions about God, free will, prayer and what people actually expect from a higher power. Morgan Freeman is particularly good as God. He doesn't play him as some distant, solemn figure, but as a calm and slightly amused man who lets Bruce discover the answers for himself.

And then there's the love story. Bruce's relationship with Grace is not just an excuse to give the film a romantic subplot. It's an important part of his journey. Bruce spends so much time thinking about what he wants that he fails to appreciate what he already has. His newfound powers eventually teach him something that omnipotence can't give him.

Jim Carrey is perfectly cast, of course. This is the sort of role that allows him to be as manic and ridiculous as he wants, but he also manages to give Bruce enough warmth to make the more emotional scenes work. Jennifer Aniston is equally good as Grace, while Morgan Freeman looks as though he's having a great time being God.

What surprises me most is how well the whole thing hangs together. It's a comedy, a love story and a film that asks some genuinely interesting questions about God, all without becoming too heavy or losing its sense of fun.

It's also a film that doesn't deserve to be forgotten. I'd more or less forgotten it myself, which is why I'm glad I decided to watch it again after all these years. Sometimes a film can disappear into the past simply because there are so many others competing for our attention. "Bruce Almighty" deserves another look.

Life is too short for bad movies. Fortunately, this isn't one of them.

Success Rate:  + 4.0

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Horrible Bosses 2 (1 Star)

The first film was mildly amusing. "Horrible Bosses 2" has almost nothing in its favour. The only scene I enjoyed was seeing Shelby Chesnes jogging on the bridge, which lasted less than ten seconds. If the film had been 90 minutes of her jogging and working out I could have given the film a much better rating.

The film's title is false advertising. Nick, Kurt and Dale are no longer workers suffering under bad bosses. Between them they've invented a new shower head – huh? – and they want to make a fortune marketing it. An entrepreneur, played by Christoph Waltz, offers to invest in their startup company, but he screws them over and leaves them bankrupt. What do they expect? Christoph Waltz is always the smooth talking bad guy. To get revenge, and more importantly to get their money back, they kidnap his son and hold him for ransom.

The whole film turns into an unfunny comedy caper about a trio of incompetent criminals attempting to do something that is way over their heads. Jennifer Aniston returns from the first film, but as a seductress she isn't sexy, she just looks stupid.

I feel like I've just wasted 90 minutes of my life. Apart from Shelby Chesnes jogging, of course. I wonder if she's done any fitness videos.

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Office Space (4 Stars)

When I watched this satirical film today I had a nagging feeling that it reminded me of something. Eventually I figured it out. "Catch 22" (the novel, not the film). It's a different sort of story, but a similar sort of humour. I'm sure that if you watch it you'll see what I mean.

The film shows the working life of an employee in Initech, a computer company responsible for banking and accounting software. Everyone is crammed into cubicles in an open space office. The cubicles are so small that people have to squeeze in and out of them. In "Catch 22" Yossarian censors letters written by US soldiers to their wives by blacking out adjectives and other irrelevant information. In "Office Space" Peter Gibbons processes TPS reports, methods of quality control for the software they produce. Nobody in the company, especially not the boss, knows what the employees do in their cubicles, so external consultants are called in to interview everyone, with the intention of streamlining the company by firing anyone whose job is deemed unnecessary.

Peter's best friends in the company are scheduled to be fired, but Peter himself tells the consultants that he arrives late every day, spends hours staring at his computer screen and only works on the TPS reports for about 15 minutes a day. The consultants are so impressed that they recommend him for promotion. Also noteworthy is Milton, an employee who was fired five years ago, but the company forgot to tell him, so he still comes to work every day.

The only thing Peter enjoys in his life is the time he spends with his new girlfriend, Joanna, a waitress who works in a small restaurant next to the office building shared by Initech. It's a bland little restaurant which would never attract customers under normal circumstances, but because of its location office workers eat there for the sake of convenience. Joanna is also frustrated with her job, especially the endless discussions with her boss about how many badges she should wear on her outfit.

This is a parody of large impersonal American companies. Nobody knows what anyone else does, and by squashing everyone closer together people know even less about one another. Anyone who works in a company like that can sympathise with the characters in the film.

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Horrible Bosses (3½ Stars)

I thought I would take a break from the Ray Harryhausen films. Don't worry, I'll get back to them. "Horrible Bosses" has been on my to-watch list for a few months. I first noticed it when I saw a trailer for it on another DVD. That's something I do. I always watch the film trailers included on DVDs, if they're films I haven't seen yet. It's a simulated cinema experience.

According to Wikipedia, "Horrible Bosses" is the most successful black comedy of all time, having taken over $200 million at the box office, despite its humour being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Or maybe we should say it's because the humour is racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Good humour is never politically correct.

The film centres on three friends, Nick, Kurt and Dale. Nick works in an office for a tyrannical boss who works him hard and denies him promotion. Kurt has worked happily for years in a company, but after his boss's death the new boss, his drug addicted son, is threatening to ruin the company. Dale works as a dental assistant and is being sexually harassed by his female boss, the dentist. They're all suffering, even Dale, so together they hatch a plot to kill their bosses. Unfortunately, murder isn't easy if you've never done it before.

For me this was a fun romp. I enjoyed it, but it had no real substance that would make me want to watch it again. Some films are only intended to be viewed once, maybe I shouldn't penalise it for that. I can recommend it to my readers who want some mindless fun. Maybe people can relate to it, because everyone hates their boss. Sometimes. On the other hand, if I ever had a boss who's a sex-crazed maneater I think I could deal with it.