In 2003 Steve Carell's career was ignited with his scene stealing gibberish in the comedy “Bruce Almighty”. Four years on, after success in films such as “Anchorman” and “The 40 Year Old Virgin”, he stars in the spin off “Evan Almighty”
Evan Baxter has well and truly moved on since being tormented by his rival Bruce Nolan in the previous film. Evan is now a congressman who as been summoned by God himself (Morgan Freeman) to build a new Ark.
As he reluctantly undertakes this task, Evan begins to resemble Noah - that grey bearded chap from the Old Testament.
One would assume “Evan Almighty” is a comedy. It comes from the same team that brought us “Bruce Almighty”, which did very well at the box office. So as the film got underway, with its clever opening sequence, I waited… and I waited…
Unfortunately this film just isn't funny….
Steve Carell pushes so hard for laughs and cuteness in the first hour of the film, that it unfortunately exposes the lameness and predictability of the screenplay. It was a mistake to weight a whole film on a character that should have remained a clever cameo.
Morgan Freeman is as you'd expect his god to be but the film wastes some of the best comedy actors around today, Jonah Hill and Wanda Sykes, even Jon Stewart in a cameo doesn't fair well.
The animals come off best. The scenes where they are gathering in pairs to board the Ark are really terrific.
This is a film full of gags but no real comedy.
Evan Almighty is more a family film than adult comedy and unfortunately the end credit sequence is by far the best moment of the film - 2 stars. Evan Almighty is in cinemas now.
