Evan Almighty (2007) Reviews

• You can take your kids to this movie

  wfgwilliams2007-06-27

  I haven't seen Bruce Almighty. Unlike just about everyone else who went to this movie I had nothing to compare it with and no expectations based on the earlier movie. I have a feeling what people were expecting was a frenetic, high strung, giddy, laugh a nano-second experience. If that is what you are expecting, then you will be disappointed. What I was expecting was based on what I saw in the trailers for this movie - ordinary guy is visited by God, God tells him to build an Ark, the guy's beard and hair grow and animals show up. I was also expecting some funny stuff. The film delivers on story, on character, on relationships. It has an element of menace and anticipation. It has funny stuff and it has heart. It is also a movie you can take your kids to, which is kind of rare these days. I really enjoyed this movie. Set aside your Jim Carrey expectations and you may enjoy it, too.

• Mighty Mediocre

  HuntersCreed2007-06-22

  Steve Carell reprises his role as Evan Baxter in this sequel to Bruce Almighty. Evan Almighty jumps right into the mix of things with little build up. Right off the bat we find out that news anchor Evan Baxter has segued his career into one of political aspirations. Soon after being elected to the United States Congress under a slogan painting him as a politician out to change the world, God (Morgan Freeman) commissions Baxter to build an ark in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the history of the area. In a predictable move the area townspeople antagonize Baxter as he begins the construction of the ark. Baxter's reputation is further soiled by the fact that his political career is being looked as a joke when he starts wearing sack cloth on a regular basis, and animals of all kinds are following him around in pairs. Baxter's boss Congressman Long, who once supported him quickly, becomes the antagonist as the people begin to turn against Baxter. Evan Almighty is predictable on every turn, and has enough humor to satisfy. The animals do their part to provide a fair share of fecal humor. Morgan Freeman offers up plenty of wisdom in the role of God. Steve Carell does an exceptionally adequate job of delivering very humorous dialogue, which in his style is sure to be adlibbed in great part. The sheer amounts of animals in this film are overwhelming and a treat to behold. Overall the storyline and humor feel very cliché. Evan Almighty was a mild success, but just does not offer anything special apart from a few good laughs. Parents with children will get their money's worth out of this, but for everyone else it is a worthwhile rental.

• Not Almighty, but quite All-righty!

  marxthedude2007-04-03

  Steve Carell returns as prissy newsreader Evan Baxter, a little less mean-spirited this time around unlike his previous small turn in 'Bruce Almighty'. Of course, Carell was up and coming then but as his box-office success shows, the character responsible for arguably the only really funny scene in 'Bruce Almighty' deserves a film of his own. Shadayac and co. have approached it with a novel (if potentially expensive idea) to make God (Morgan Freeman) appear this time to instruct Baxter to build an Arc and, as Noah did before him, load it full of animals to protect them from an for an oncoming flood. It's an idea that's very entertaining, even if the jokes are less easy than the previous premise. Evan's transformation of appearance and being pursued by eager animals are the main areas of humour here, which means at times the film is thin on the ground. Sentiment comes in the form of Evan's neglect of his family; the audience will know exactly where this will be going, but fortunately the sentiment isn't as annoying as you might believe. It's also very much a family affair, the humour and the language very much for family audiences. Disappointingly, Shadayac, responsible for bringing out two of Jim Carrey's worst performances (namely 'Liar Liar' and 'Bruce Almighty') by letting Carrey overdo it by seemingly telling him to do the whole thing as an impression of William Shatner, mistakenly this time opts to take Carell down a notch. Carell's trademark hysteria and bizarre reactions are in short supply and we have an all together calmer 'Little Miss Sunshine'-esquire turn, which also means the film loses some of it's potential in this instance. Wanda Sykes and co. are merely stock characters needing better dialogue. Does this make it a bad film? Not at all. It's religious tie-ins (if rushed) are quite smart and it's very well directed visually with a great use of music and keeping a steady pace. It is what's on the label, but with a jaw-droppingly impressive final act which will really take you by surprise and could be up there as one of the sights of the summer! You could do a lot worse than enjoy 100 minutes of easy-going fun but if it's a laugh-out-loud roller-coaster you want, you will leave short-changed!

• Don't expect "Bruce Almighty" all over again.

  tml_pohlak_132009-03-12

  Evan Almighty generated a lot of hype before its release. A lot of people loved Bruce Almighty, and were expecting something just a zany and hilarious in Evan Almighty. Most of them were disappointed: this movie was received negatively by most critics and audiences alike. Well, I liked it! First of all, this movie has been misunderstood, because it was mismarketed. It was marketed as a hilarious sequel to Bruce Almighty (and the trailer made it look that way, too). But, to be perfectly honest, this is more of a family film than a comedy. But it is a really good family film. This film had a lot of potential for comedy. It delivered at times, but not consistently. It also had two very crude toilet humour jokes involving male genitalia (just the word, though, nothing beyond that). I will freely admit, this isn't nearly as hilarious a comedy as the original. But it's good in its own right. Morgan Freeman's scenes as God were excellently written and performed! One scene in particular, in a restaurant, was really touching and moving. Freeman is really a terrific actor, I'm glad they cast him as God. The performances in this movie were, overall, great. (Although it's a lot of fun watching the young kid unable to resist looking into the camera when pointing out two doves to his dad.) So, all in all, Evan Almighty is not "almighty" but it's still "alrighty".

• Think of it as a Light-Hearted Religious Epic, rather than a comedy

  hellokristen2007-06-23

  If you go expecting to see a gut-busting laugh-out-loud comedy like the usual Jim Carrey-Tom Shayac production, you'll be disappointed. (But it also doesn't have the bathroom humor -- a relief to me.) But INSTEAD I suggest you think back to those great religious epics of the 1950s -- but with many light-hearted moments (instead of the heavy melodrama those movies had). I think then you can just sit back and enjoy this movie. Steve Carell is a master of subtle comedy -- the comedy of character nuances. He's not a big broad over-the-top comedy actor like Jim Carrey. So it's not really fair to compare him to Jim and the Ace Ventura movies. It must be a lot of pressure on him: "You're the star of the most expensive comedy ever made! Talk out of your butt or something!" They have him doing some slapstick while clumsily building the ark, but it isn't really funny. The film is stocked with expert comedy actors, but only Wanda Sykes got any laughs out of the audience. (But then, it's said Wanda Sykes can get laughs just reading a phone book.) Sadly John Goodman is wasted as "the heavy". Over the closing credits, you see a moment of him comic dancing and you remember how funny this guy is.) I was amazed to find tears rolling down my cheeks about halfway through -- when God disguised as a waiter has a little talk with Evan's wife (who thinks her husband has lost his mind). It happened a few more times till the end. So if you turn off your laugh-o-meter expectations and just look at it as a sweet story of faith with a few smiles and a lot of delightful animals and some great disaster effects, you'll enjoy it.