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Evan Almighty (2007)

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219 comments in total

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90 out of 133 people found the following comment useful :-
Mighty Mediocre, 22 June 2007

Author: John Nutter (HuntersCreed@gmail.com) from Apopka, Florida

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.

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145 out of 250 people found the following comment useful :-
Not Almighty, but quite All-righty!, 3 April 2007

Author: marc brown (marxthedude) from LONDON, ENGLAND

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!

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45 out of 67 people found the following comment useful :-
You can take your kids to this movie, 27 June 2007
Author: wfgwilliams from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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44 out of 68 people found the following comment useful :-
I liked it, but I expected something different, 26 June 2007
Author: EntertainMe463 from New Jersey

First the good.....I really loved the special effects, the premise of the story, the beautiful scenery and the excellent performances!

Prior to watching Evan Almighty, I rented Bruce Almighty again.....just to refresh my memory (I couldn't remember if it was left open for a sequel). Then I watched the "making of" special of EA on HBO. It was very interesting, Tom Shadyac said he had to direct Jim and Steve very differently. He said "Steve is funnier when things are being done to him and Jim is just the opposite".

Because of that I understood why the two movies seemed completely different, however I was disappointed that this one was more "family friendly" (my fault I didn't check the rating first). My tastes lean more towards the adult humor ( I don't have children, so it's not a factor).

Which brings me to my next point, a lot of families were at my particular screening. So this is what didn't make sense....it was rated PG for that reason, however.....a LOT of the jokes went over children's heads. So the ONLY thing the children will appreciate are the animals.

IN my theater I was one of the only ones laughing at Steve's situations and Wanda's excellent zingers! So in closing I give the movie a 7/10 it is a very good movie with excellent special effects and a fun premise.....however don't go expecting a zany, quick-paced comedy like Bruce Almighty and you won't be disappointed. ~Debbie~

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54 out of 88 people found the following comment useful :-
A good family movie, far from being 'haha' funny., 20 July 2007

Author: Anton Petrov from Canada

Although I enjoy Steve Carrell's work, Evan the Almighty, like so many other overdone films turned out to be a lot worse than I hoped it would be.

This turned out to be a cheesy family movie, the kind that employ famous comedian to improve their image, but ultimately fail to deliver.

The usual Carell's dorky humour is almost absent from the movie and though he did make me chuckle a few times, there was nothing hilarious about him in Evan the Almighty.

His 3 kids, although were probably somehow important for a biblical character, were really quite useless in the movie and terrible actors. Even his wife, was somewhat of a third leg for such a simple storyline.

Spending so much money on making a comedy was a huge mistake. Although, Carell's career might profit from this movie, there's no real reason to go see it.

If only there was a little less of his family, a little more of Carell, Molly Shannon and maybe some other SNL cast, it could have actually been a lot more entertaining.

4/10 for a few chuckles here and there.

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45 out of 74 people found the following comment useful :-
Did you say comedy, 16 July 2007

Author: Amit Kumar (amitkumar.hallmark@gmail.com) from United States

Did some one say comedy... this cannot be categorized as a pure comedy and it doesn't come under the cadre of Bruce Almighty and Steve Carell though he tried hard is not match to Jim Carrey. This is not a pure comedy and has its own emotional scenes to counter your comic feelings while watching the movie..... Buy your popcorn and drink before you go to the movie and don't expect to have a pain in your gut because you don't do any big laughing exercise in it. Still it has kept with its pace, being a smaller movie of less than 100 minutes adds to its advantage.

It has a good script and quite a happy feeling at the end of the movie... It is good to see these kind of movies as a family outing and feel good when you see your family members smiling after the movie.

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45 out of 75 people found the following comment useful :-
Think of it as a Light-Hearted Religious Epic, rather than a comedy, 23 June 2007

Author: Kristen Kallahan from Seattle WA USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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41 out of 73 people found the following comment useful :-
god-awful (no pun intended), 26 June 2007

Author: spirit_of_truth2000 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Well, for this abomination of a film, I wasn't expecting anything good. I find Steve Carell annoying, and Bruce Almighty was pretty good but there is absolutely no reason for it to have a sequel. Somehow, this film was even lower than my expectations, even when I didn't have any.

Does anyone remember the Disney movie Noah with Tony Danza? Well, let's just say that Evan Almighty completely ripped it off in way too many ways for the movie to remain justifiable. Actually Evan Almighty was had the EXACT same plot outline as Noah, with the exception of a few technicalities, it was nothing but a carbon copy of a far-superior movie that was actually FUNNY.

Another thing, did anyone get sick of Wanda Sykes' stupid, unfunny, redundant, one-liners that were literally in every single scene? It was completely ridiculous and just dragged the movie down more and more.

Despite the fact that I basically had already seen the film ten years earlier(Noah), Evan Almighty has to be the most predictable movie I've ever seen. I figured out the entire movie from beginning to end within the first five minutes and eventually realized that it was ripping off Noah left and right.

In conclusion, if you're a little bit unsure of whether or not you want to see Evan Almighty, and are already sick of Jonah Hill playing the same role in every single movie he's in, liked Bruce Almighty, and don't want to see a predictable, dry, unfunny movie with Steve Carell trying to act like Jim Carrey, then please, don't see this piece of garbage.

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17 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
"Evan Almighty" review..., 12 August 2007

Author: Tyy Tad from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I hated this film. Simply put, this film is so bad that I almost want to disregard ever watching it and never again mentioning it. But on the other hand, I can't resist a good bashing. And if there's one thing that Evan Almighty does for the audience it is that it brings out the best criticism.

The film (a sequel to the much funnier Bruce Almighty) starts out by reintroducing the audience to Evan Baxter, a mere supporting at best character in the original film. That's right. This film shows no Jim Carrey or Jennifer Anisten. Not even a small cameo appearance. You know your film is bad when the guy that agreed to do Ace Venture: When Nature Calls won't even have a short walk-on role. But somehow they manage to keep Morgan Freeman as God. While sitting in the near empty theater bored out of my mind at the lack of comedy I couldn't help but wonder how much money it took to secure Freeman for this film. Then it hit me an hour ago. It's just a throwaway role that takes up all of 20 minutes in the 100 minute film. God just pops up in between scenes to tell Evan to build the ark. Sure I know Morgan Freeman won't look at this film in a year and think it's as good as his roles in The Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby but it's easy money.

Where was I? Oh yes, the plot. Sometimes it's so hard to keep focused on the plot when you realize that you gave more thought thinking about the plot than the writer of the screenplay did. Anyway Evan (Steve Carell) has apparently left his job as a news anchorman for a job as a congressman. Yeah... with no transition in between. He never turns to his wife and says "I think I want to be a congressman." It just happens within the first five minutes and you are forced to deal with the big transition. Well as a congressman he is to partner for a bill proposed by John Goodman's character when suddenly God appears to tell Evan to build an ark. No "Hey, how you doing? How's the weather?" bit. Just "I want you to build an ark." Evidence of bad writing: Evan determines that God is giving him clues to build an ark after noticing a fan hold up a sign saying Genesis 6:14 when he's walking past his son whose watching a televised baseball game.

That's basically the plot of Evan Almighty. There are some random supporting cast members that do their best at creating comedy but they don't do very well because they aren't given hardly any screen time. It's just your basic run of the mill family building an ark film. Oh and also there's that obligatory scene where a father has to cancel his hiking plans with his kids and wife because he becomes busy with work. They walk off disappointed but they understand, as do all the other times in film this has happened. Just once would I love to see the youngest kid turn to his father and kick him in the chins and tell him "You're a real bastard for canceling your plans with us. I'm going to turn emo now." There's also that drama that you'd expect from the father with his family when they realize (the wife, actually... the three kids have no problem helping dad build an ark) that he's gone crazy and he claims God wants him to build a big boat. But don't worry. His family decides to stick with him. Oops, I just spoiled the drama.

Another problem with this film is that there is hardly any good comedy going on. I know the decision was made to rate have this be a PG film to get a bigger crowd reaction but I don't think I'm in the minority when I think that family humor is more than just guys getting kicked in the nuts and animals crapping. Maybe I'm wrong and that's what quality family humor has been reduced to. And if it is, please bring me more adult comedies so I won't have to sit through anymore of this crap (pun not intended).

The ending is extra cheesy. All of a sudden the film takes a dramatic CGI filled turn that makes me shudder to think how it is a terrible waste of CGI. I bet it was expensive too. Finally after all that waiting we are told why God wanted Evan to build an ark. And boy oh boy I hated the reason why. I'll spare the details but it was like watching or reading a murder mystery and having the killer turn out to be the person who walked behind the main character for one second and had no lines.

Oh and then there's a nice touch at the very end. The song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" plays over the credits and we are then subjected to the "dancing" of the cast. I don't get it. They spend 100 minutes unsuccessfully making a comedy and then they wrap it up with a thriller. I swear I haven't been that scared watching Steve Carell dance since ... well never. There you have it folks. Evan Almighty is the scariest film of all time.

All in all I thought it was a wasted experience. I'm baffled at all the talented actors (Carell, Freeman and Goodman) appearing in this bore-fest alongside Lauren Graham, the woman from Gilmore Girls that has yet to prove to me that she can act her way out of a paper bag. But most of all I'm surprised at my will power to actually sit through the whole film without walking out.

Rating: * out of ****

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17 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
God awful, 3 September 2007

Author: Craig Milne from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

'A comedy of biblical proportions!' Those masters of hyperbole, the movie-tag-line-writers, at it again; the sequel to 2003's Bruce Almighty, raises barely a chuckle. The only thing which raises my interest in this movie above total indifference is its dogmatic Christian undertones. Sorry, make that overtones.

Steve Carrel, ignoring Jim Carrey's good sense to decline a role reprisal, plays Evan Baxter, the smug news anchor from Bruce Almighty, who has just been elected to congress. With a new life in Virginia and the stress of moving into a house the size of the Acropolis, the pressure of all the change takes its toll on his family. His wife (Lauren Graham), evidently airlifted in from Stepford, and three sons (Jimmy Bennett, Graham Phillips and Johnny Simmons), who do a stilted job of looking sad to a piano accompaniment, pray for the family to become closer, and almost out of guilt, so does Evan.

In what must be the greatest shock of all time, God (Morgan Freeman) actually shows up, but does the whole pesky 'working in mysterious ways' thing all over the place by telling Evan to build a Noah-esquire ark in preparation for a great flood instead of just giving him a pool table or and X-box or something. And in true mischievous deity style, he also forces Evan to grow a beard, long hair and wear worn and tatty robes. Now, back in the day I'm sure razors were hard to come by so the beard was somewhat of an inevitability for Noah, but I'm almost certain it had nothing to do with spirituality. Same with the robes; a massive construction job is surely made all the more difficult by such impractical clothing. Couldn't God have conjured up a pair of steel toed boots and a hard hat for the poor guy? Apparently not.

To paraphrase Bill Hicks, I find the idea that God is messing with us somewhat unsettling, and so does Evan who fights him every step of the way. And who wouldn't? God essentially gets him fired, drives away his loved ones, makes him a laughing stock and at one point actually threatens him. Of course God turns out to be right, and the rational, hard working family man who was getting on fine by himself is forced to eat a large slice of bittersweet humble pie. It's almost as if to be left alone by God, Evan had to tolerate and humour him. What kind of message is that?

Evan Almighty does have a highly commendable environmental slant, with the underlying theme being that the Federal Government is blind to the damage being done to the world around us. It is also the first film ever to offset its carbon emissions and this should surely be considered a landmark achievement by a Hollywood studio. Were it not for the trite, condescending banner of American Christianity flying high above it, Evan Almighty could have been an inoffensive family movie, with a praiseworthy environmental record. But with its confused religious dogma and relentless 'blind faith' message, it ranks as one of the most repugnant movies of all time.

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