Evan Almighty

With a cast of hugely talented comedic actors like Steve Carell, Lauren Graham, John Goodman and Wanda Sykes, I was expecting a laugh out loud comedy. Sadly, Shadyac's 'Evan Almighty' only provides a few such moments. There just isn't enough comedy and at times it's a little too dramatic. Throughout the films, there are only but a very few dialogues that are funny as a result of which actors like Sykes and Graham don't have enough comedy to work with. Carell reprises his role from the prequel 'Bruce Almighty' but this time he's a little more of a nicer guy. Overall, Carell does a good job but he's more in the 'Little Miss Sunshine' mode which brings 'Evan Almighty' down a notch because that kind of character doesn't fully work for this kind of film and it is Shadyac to be blamed for not making something better of something decent. Yet, Carell's the only one who provides comic relief even though it's with limited quantity. His interaction with the animals are awesome to watch. Morgan Freeman is more cheerful and more annoying in this one. Lauren Graham plays the typical housewife and mother well and her reaction to Carell's transformation is excellent. In spite of all it's flaws, it is the last half hour that lifts the film. It builds up the drama and suspense very well and sort of has an adventurous feel. This entire sequence is very well executed. The soundtrack is well used and the songs are nice too. Thus, despite its shortcomings, it's still entertaining, but don't expect a laugh riot.

I didn't expect much when I bought this film, actually I never even heard there was a sequel to the wonderful Bruce Almighty until I noticed the similar names while browsing in a shop, and I remembered the name Evan. How could anyone forget Evan Baxter from the first movie? His performance, although short, was fantastic, and the scene where Bruce was messing with him was very memorable.

I found Evan Almighty to be quite good, in contrast to some of the reviews here. I was very surprised to see this movie scoring at only 5.7 at the time of this review. Sure there were some cheesy scenes, Wanda Sykes' lines were hit and miss, Jonah Hill as Eugene was just... weird.... but those things don't detract from what is a solid movie with lots of laughter. The only thing I can think of is that Carrey fans would probably be disappointed, as there's less slapstick action but more subtle humor. This is because Steve Carell has a different style, so it's extremely unfair to compare him to Jim Carrey.

This is a family comedy with excellent morals. It should definitely be viewed with the entire family. I enjoyed the humor from Carell, I thought the character for him was spot-on and really gave him an opportunity to shine on the stage. Lauren Graham was decent, I thought she played a deeper character than in Bad Santa, but she was okay as the wife. Morgan Freeman was great as usual. The other characters all did well including John Goodman but Carell carried this movie. There are some surprises that some may find cheesy or too predictable, but the final scene was immense. It was definitely more powerful than any scene from Bruce Almighty.

So give Evan Almighty a chance, rent it at least. It's a nice movie that I really can't find any glaring faults that would turn someone off.

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!

I don't understand all the negativity towards this movie, I loved it and thought it was just as good as Bruce Almighty (if anything, I think I may prefer it). It's creative, lighthearted, and overall a fun movie that I've watched several times!

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.