Evan Almighty
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG
Cast: Steve Carrell, Morgan Freeman
Director: Tom Shadyac
WorkNameSort: Evan Almighty
Our Rating: 1.50
In Evan Almighty, writer Steve Oedekerk and director Tom Shadyac sure do love the poop humor. And with two of every animal making appearances in this modern-day Noah fairytale, there’s plenty of feces to go around in every color, shape and size. It’s appropriate, since the movie is one big steaming pile itself. Morgan Freeman reprises his role as God from Bruce Almighty, this time to force vain congressman Evan Baxter (Steve Carell, who had a small role anchoring the news in Bruce) to build an ark in anticipation of a Biblical flood. This faith-based initiative plays a key role in exposing a corrupt politician (John Goodman), whose slimy intentions are delivered with as much subtlety as the film’s overriding family-values moralizing. There’s enough stupidity here to insult both theologians and politicos, and this material is so below Carell that he should be ashamed of himself. Only Wanda Sykes, ever the harbinger of the snappy insult, can bring any laughter to this sanctimonious sorta-sequel, which, with its kid-friendly cleansing, lacks even the slight perversity of its predecessor.
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2007.