Malaysia allows Carrey comedy
Government censors in Malaysia have allowed the release of Jim Carrey's film comedy Bruce Almighty despite fears it would offend Muslims.
Film censors passed the movie despite objections from the mostly-Muslim country's religious affairs minister, although it was given an 18-rating.
"They viewed it from every angle and found it was a typical Jim Carrey comedy, with nothing sensitive about it," said Anna Ng, local general manager for the film's distributor Buena Vista.
The film sees Carrey's character, a TV reporter, take on God's powers in a challenge to see if he can run the world better than the almighty.
The film was originally supposed to have opened in Malaysia on 7 August, but was delayed after religious affairs minister Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin said the film could offend Muslims.
Religious censoring
"We cannot equate ourselves with God almighty even as a joke," he said.
The movie will now open in early September, with its 18-rating being due to language, crude humour and sexual content.
The predominantly Muslim country has had a history of outlawing American films, or censoring scenes on moral or religious grounds.
The award-winning film The Hours saw several scenes cut that depicted kissing between two women to protect the "interests of the country and people from bad influences and negative elements shown in films".
And the big screen adaptation of the comic book hero Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, was also outlawed because of "excessive violence".
And cartoon Prince of Egypt, an animated epic about the life of Moses, was deemed "insensitive for religious reasons", while Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me featured too much sexual innuendo for Malaysian censors.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/film/3140779.stm
Published: 2003/08/11 09:04:20 GMT
© BBC MMIII
-
Ignored One.