by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: April 04, 2009

Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), last seen in the 2003 hit Bruce Almighty,
has gone on from being just an anchor man to running for Congress. Upon his election, he and his family move to a gigantic house on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. and he prepares for a life full of the success he always dreamed of. But of course, we never can bank on what the Almighty has planned for us.

Not long after he moves, Evan starts getting huge shipments of wood (1-800-GO-4-WOOD; gopher wood, get it?) and the mysterious number 614 keeps showing up everywhere. He is finally visited by God (Morgan Freeman) and instructed to build an ark and fill it with every type of animal. Obviously he thinks it must be some kind of joke and ignores it...until his facial hair starts to grow uncontrollably and a woolen cloak is delivered to him with obvious signs that he is meant to wear it.

Top this cast off with Wanda Sykes as Carell's assistant and John Goodman as a senior congressman and you'd think there would be a good show. You might think wrong...

My then-significant other and I both had high hopes for this movie after enjoying its prequel, Bruce Almighty, immensely. A word of caution, if you liked Bruce Almighty you probably won't like Evan Almighty
unless it's for a reason completely unrelated to the first movie...except that Morgan Freeman does in fact star as God in both, and features the same witty humor for each role. However, there's just something missing.

First of all, I think Steve Carell is a talented actor and did a decent job at romantic slapstick comedy in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but for the most part slapstick just doesn't seem to be his forte. Many have probably seen the television series The Office
and this is the kind of thing Carell's style of acting is good for, deadpan. In my opinion it was a big mistake for the producers to even try for a sequel to Bruce Almighty without any trace of Jim Carrey. Carell may be talented, but in my mind he still doesn't hold a candle to the witty and outrageous performances Carrey is known for. Perhaps they thought the addition of comedian Wanda Sykes would help even things out? Whatever their reasons, it didn't quite work. In fact the only thing the two films have in common is that each deals with "an act of God"...even though in one a man was given God's powers, and the other a man was ordered by God to do something that has been done once before in biblical history.

I was rather disappointed with the ending of this movie. I can't say exactly why without giving it away, but once you see the film you'll understand. I do think that this film is more appropriate for younger kids than Bruce Almighty
because it doesn't have the crude humor and sexual connotations the first has and a lot of kids would probably enjoy the light-hearted story.

That said, I am very impressed with the way the film was made. According to the extras on the DVD, they actually made a full-sized ark for the film and trained and used real animals rather than computer-editing to put the animals in. Why exactly they bothered that much with this cutesy so-called sequel I'm not sure, but it would explain the realistic effects.

In all, I think this is a good film for younger kids and even a bit entertaining for adults, but if you're looking for something that has any resemblance to Bruce Almighty
you'll be sorely disappointed, I'm afraid. The film is worth renting, and I would recommend you rent before purchasing because some people will probably enjoy it while others may be just a bit disappointed.

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