Very Funny and clean. Oh,God! Book 1 is a great movie. I am eleven years old so you might think that I don't know about this movie but I do. I have seen it. There are a few sexual references but not to much. This is even better then Bruce Almighty. Somebody on here thought this film was Blasphemy. He said a lot of things that are in the movie but those scenes that he talked about were not in the movie at all except for one or two. God does not smoke cigars in this movie. Just because he is played by George Burns does not mean he smokes cigars in the movie. If you have not seen it, buy it because in my area it is not at video rental stores so the only way to buy the DVD is to go on to amazon.com and buy it. If you are religious then do not take this movie seriously. Everyone who has not seen it needs to right now. So my overall rating is 7 out of 10 angels. Enjoy.

Oh God!, is a smart and funny film. It is truthful, without being condescending. It talks about religion without being religious. It also showcases George Burns' finest screen appearance aside from The Sunshine Boys.

As, God, Burns is astonishing. Whenever John Denver asks questions that every being would ask if confronted by God, Burns replies with a certain, common sense, matter of fact response. There is no grandiose answer. One of my favorite lines is when John Denver's character asks "Why me?", God says, "Why not you? You know those supermarket things, every one millionth customer. Or whoever crosses the bridge at a certain time. Well you're the one millionth customer."

Speaking of Denver, he also is great, playing Jerry, not as a crazed man, but as an average grocery market assistant manager who is suddenly faced with the fact that God has chosen him to carry a message. He plays his character with a certain warmth, and naturalness.

Carl Reiner directed this film, and with a great eye. Notice how Jerry's everyday life is just that, everyday. The way he is with his wife, and kids, and people around him. I've seen it a dozen times, because that's how people actually act. Reiner brought a sense of realness to this movie, which in effect brought with it believability.

Before Morgan Freeman was God, George Burns was God, and actually there's something very appealing about God being played by a short, elderly man with a soft voice and a gentle sense of humour. Not that this was what God looked like, of course. God explained that this was just the way he chose to appear to Jerry Landers (played by John Denver) - the Tarzana, California supermarket assistant manager through whom God chose to speak a word to the world. God couldn't appear as he really was, it was explained, because Landers (and presumably the rest of us) just couldn't handle that. Point taken. That actually reminded me a bit of John's Gospel, in speaking of Jesus: "no one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

This is a very low-key movie for the most part about God choosing to make an appearance basically to plead - through Jerry - for people to start getting along with each other and to stop hurting each other; an appeal to set aside all the things that divide us and start to focus on being the human family. Not a bad message - but, as the film portrays, a message not received well at all. Instead of embracing the message, those who heard it chose to either attack or ridicule the messenger - surely a warning for those who claim to bring a word from God. Through Burns, God isn't portrayed as a being of great power, breathing fire and brimstone and anxiously waiting to bring judgement upon us. God is frustrated with us, disappointed in us, amused by us, but not especially angry. It's hard to imagine God as portrayed here being angry.

The movie breaks out of its low key feel very briefly for a scene involving the Reverend Willie Williams (played by Paul Sorvino.) One of a panel of religious "experts" called upon to pass judgement on whether or not Jerry's experience of God was real, Sorvino's portrayal of Williams - a corrupt and greedy evangelist - was very well done; a spark of real energy in an otherwise sedate movie. Williams and the others on the panel, of course, are all convinced that God would only speak through them (or at least through their various religions) and not through a lowly supermarket assistant manager. But God chose the humble and unknown Jerry. There's a theological point being made there - an important one actually, and such theological points are made throughout the movie, although never in a hard-sell, in your face sort of way. Teri Garr (who seems to me to have been everywhere in the 70's) was also cast in this as Jerry's devoted but doubtful wife.

Some compare this movie to "Bruce Almighty." It actually has more in common I think with "Evan Almighty" - the idea of God choosing a person to speak through and having him rejected as either insane or a fraud. Jerry wasn't given God's powers, after all - just a message for the world. Low key and sedate, this movie won't get your heart pounding or cause outrageous laughter. It's just gently thought- provoking and mildly amusing. A pleasant viewing experience. (6/10)