Hot off the heels (if you call four years later a quick turnaround) of the successful Bruce Almighty, Hollywood brings to us Evan Almighty. This time, however, instead of Jim Carrey carrying the load, the baton has been handed off to the new funny man of cinema – Steve Carell. Unfortunately, the baton was dropped during handoff.
Evan Almighty is the story of Evan Baxter (Carell). You may remember him from the first movie as a news anchor for Eyewitness News. Now he’s a newly appointed congressman, who’s been elected on the campaign motto of “Change The World.” In addition to that promise, he’s made a promise to his wife (Lauren Graham) to get closer to his family. Guess who notices? God (Morgan Freeman), of course! And in his infinite wisdom he combines the two. Can there be a better way to change the world and bring the family together than to build an ark? Hell, no! So after initially fighting the Genesis 6:14 notices all around him, Baxter gives in and begins to build his ark. As you can guess, no one, including his wife, understands his endeavor and think he is crazy. But is he? Of course not, but I can tell you who is:
Anyone who thinks Evan Almighty is a funny movie.
Steve Carell is an extremely funny guy but apparently someone lost the memo on that when they put this movie together. The boyish charm and naivete he uses for his laughs (see The 40 Year Old Virgin) is nowhere to be seen here. Instead they’ve got him doing pratfalls galore and acting like a bonehead. It’s almost as if the writers had no motivation to come up with anything worthwhile. Here is a brainstorming session I envisioned:
Writer 1: “I got an idea, let’s make fun of facial hair and clothing.”
Writer 2: “Great idea. We can make his hair grow really long!”
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