Steve Carell starred in two of the best comedies in recent years -- "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Little Miss Sunshine" -- and stars in the funniest show on television, NBC's "The Office," so it is curious why he would agree to star in the unnecessary and unfunny "Evan Almighty."
Carell reprises his small role as Evan Baxter from the original "Bruce Almighty" (which starred Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston, both of whom reportedly balked at appearing in a sequel). Evan has ditched his newscaster gig to become an upstart hotshot congressmen and has uprooted his wife (Lauren Graham) and three sons to a seemingly small town, pretend version of Washington D.C.
With the help of his staff (John Michael Higgins, Wanda Sykes, Jonah Hill) and the cooperation with a rival congressman (John Goodman), Evan has aspirations to change the world. 'Change the world,' in fact, is his campaign slogan. How original.
The chance to change the world unexpectedly comes when God (Morgan Freeman, clearly in it for the paycheck) asks Evan to build an ark. Apparently, there's a flood coming. Carell at first ignores the word of God, but the biblical references to the Genesis 6:14 story of Noah and the ark soon become too much to ignore. His alarm clock goes off a 6:14 every morning. A license plate reads "GEN 614." The local movie theatre plays "The 40-Year-Old Virgin Mary." Animals follow him to work. He grows a thick, caveman-esque beard literally overnight. Slowly, he becomes convinced to start construction on the ark. "It might be something fun for the family," he tells his wife.
The script (by Steve Oedekerk, writer of "Bruce Almighty") tries to develop the building of the ark simultaneously alongside Evan's political career. But when the stories conveniently intersect during the climax, the results are more disappointing than compelling. The film's special effects, too, look cheap -- nowhere near what an astronomical $175 million budget should buy.
The film's biggest asset is obviously Carell. A lesser comedian would not have been able to mine laughs out of mundane lines like, "Is it too much to ask for a little precipitation!" Still, there must be a problem when one of the funniest comedians around elicits more laughs from his physical appearance than from his lines or from the relentless physical comedy (that chiny ponytail is priceless, though.)
The director, Tom Shadyac, has a track record of crowd-pleasing comedies with ludicrous concepts that usually end tidily with an important life-lesson. Those who've seen "Liar, Liar," "The Nutty Professor, and "Patch Adams" can imagine how "Evan Almighty" plays out.
To its credit, the PG-rated "Evan Almighty" is clearly targeted to children and preteens. From that perspective, the monkeys, elephants, giraffes and repetitious bird droppings could be enough to keep them entertained. But with Pixar's "Ratatouille" opening soon, there's no reason to pay to see "Evan Almighty." With any luck, Carell will take the huge paycheck he received from slumming through this sequel and invest it toward some better scripts. Chances seem likely that he will.
