MPAA Rated – PG
It’s 1:36 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right
| Evan Almighty Movie Stats & Links |
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| Starring: | Steve Carell, Lauren Graham, Morgan Freeman, Wanda Sykes, John Goodman |
| MPAA Rated: | PG |
| Released By: | Universal Studios |
| Release Date: | 2007 |
| Kiddie Movie: | It’s better for them. |
| Date Movie: | Only if she’s sort of religious. |
| Gratuitous Sex: | Nope. |
| Gratuitous Violence: | Nope. |
| Action: | The flood I guess. |
| Laughs: | Not really. |
| Memorable Scene: | Nothings stands out. |
| Memorable Quote: | Something like: “I feel like that Indian in front of the garbage.” |
| Directed By: | Tom Shadyac |
I know there will be people who will like “Evan Almighty.” It has a nice story, like “Bruce Almighty” it does some preaching about believing in God’s plan for us all, and the movie folks made it PG instead of PG-13, which for me, sadly, means no jokes about growing boobs or sex, but for you, well, you can safely bring your kids. The problem I really had with the movie, though, is along with no boob or sex jokes, well, there really weren’t many jokes at all.
Let’s get to the story…
Evan Baxter (Steve Carrell), the same anchorman dude from “Bruce Almighty,” has decided to further his career by running for political office, and winning, on the platform of changing the world. He packs up his wife and kids and move to a new housing development in Washington D.C., and even though he says he will spend more time with the family, we all know that won’t be the case. He quickly is being bamboozled by Congressman Long (John Goodman) to support a controversial environmental destruction bill, mostly because Evan is still just enamored with actually being a Congressman.
Enter God.
Yup, Morgan Freeman is back in his role as God, and his plan this time isn’t to give Evan his powers, nope, God wants Evan to build an ark, just like Noah in the bible. Suddenly animals are following him, his hair is growing long, and he can’t wear normal clothes anymore, just a robe. With the help of a building an ark for dummies book, Evan, with only tools that might have been around during biblical times, embarks on his ark building. The kids are enjoying time with dad, Congressman Long has him booted from Congress, and mom, Joan (Lauren Graham), is freaked by Evan’s new passion, hair, and clothing.
But God, of course, has a reason for Evan to build this ark, and the family becomes closer than ever, thanks to God who ends up having to explain to Joan why she should stand by her man.
On paper “Evan Almighty” probably looked to have promise, but for me, on the screen, there just wasn’t much there. Now I’m usually able to suspend reality for a while during a movie, but there were too many times when I really wanted to screen talk, or rather screen yell, like when Joan was questioning Evan about his beard, with Evan telling her when he shaves it just grows right back, and of course she doesn’t believe him – I so much wanted to stand up and yell “Just take her to the bathroom and shave your beard you idiot!!!” Then there was the obvious reason why God had Evan build the ark in the first place, given away subtly at the beginning of the movie, and then not so subtly on the big day. I also thought it would have been funnier if God didn’t transform Evan into a Noah look-a-like, but rather had Steve Carell building an ark.
I laughed once, right at the beginning of the film, when Evan, at the TV news station on his last day, turns to the camera and says something like “I feel like that Indian in front of the garbage” (a joke no one else seemed to get in the theater), but most of the time I just groaned in my seat with scenes like a stray dog taking a dump in Evan’s new yard, the overuse of bird pooping on Congressman Long, the movie marquise of “The 40 Year Old Virgin Mary,” and the “Spider-Man” quote of “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Look, the movie isn’t horrible, and like I said some of you will probably like it, especially if you are looking for something with a nice, swell, religious overtone to it, and is also safe enough so you can take your kids to it and tell them “See, God always has a plan for us.” For me, though, the premise of getting God’s powers and learning from it (“Bruce Almighty”) had lots of potential and worked on the funny scale; the premise of building an ark and turning into Noah, not so much. It’s 1 star out of 5 from me for “Evan Almighty,” although for some of you it is probably a 4 star film.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!