The Man Who Sued God (2001)

The Man Who Sued God is a boisterous romantic comedy about a man, Steve Myers (Billy Connolly), who decides to sue God after his fishing boat is destroyed by lightning and his insurers refuse to pay out declaring it an act of God.

Overall Review Score

4 out of 10

Review

Faced with the unenviable task of taking on his uncooperative insurance company to replace his destroyed boat, Steve Myers (Billy Connolly) attempts to take on the role of the ‘every man’ in this unique comedic drama by literally trying to sue God. Despite the films farfetched script and seriously questionable litigation undertone, The Man Who Sued God is a comedic drama that will have shaking their heads in despair while occasionally genuinely laughing at its stupidity. Its 96-minutes seem to drag as the film twists and turns from a silly comedy to something slightly more serious before returning to a silly, over-the-top comedy. The characters have no real personality and the actors, minus Billy Connolly, seem to be either unsure what to do or overreacting to the situations un-folding. Overall, The Man Who Sued God had the potential to be good by examining the existence of a divine entity and its impact on the legal system but, sadly, due to poor acting and an equally weak script complete with a predictable ending, it fails to captivate the audience. Instead, leaving them in a pit of despair wondering why they decided to watch it in the first place. Ultimately, it is a film best avoided, unless the audience is fans of Billy Connolly or unintelligent comedic humor.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 4 out of 10

Comments:

The Man Who Sued God plays out in typical Billy Connolly fashion, mixing a convoluted romance / comedy subplot with an equally lackadaisical legal drama premise, to create a 96-minute film with more convenient story elements than anything else. While Connolly does give a reasonably good performance as the main protagonist Steve Myers, what really let the film down, in my opinion, is its somewhat predictable sign from God ending and its swath of unneeded characters that acted as little more than distractions from the main characters.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 4 out of 10

Comments:

The Man Who Sued God offers two distinct things. On one hand it is a legal drama with a difference, it focuses on the ‘Act of God’ and attempts to cogently put forward an argument that if God is responsible for these acts then should be open to litigation. While, on the other hand, it tries to take Billy Connolly’s comedic abilities and blend this into a film. While there is no disputing both of these elements would work well individually when put together they create a muddled, confusing and messy film that is complete with poignant moments of stupidity and silliness. Yes, the film will occasionally make audiences laugh, over its 96-minute run time, but will barely entertain and the mediocre acting throughout will leave the audience unwilling to see the film through to the end.

#comedy #drama #billyconnolly