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Evan Almighty (PG)
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| Tookey's Rating |
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1
/10 |
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| Average Rating |
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3.32
/10 |
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| Starring |
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Steve Carell, John Goodman, Lauren Graham
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| Full Cast > |
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Directed by:
Tom Shadyac
Written by:
Steve Oedekerk 
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| Released: |
2007 |
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| Genre: |
DRAMA
SEQUEL
FAMILY
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
96 |
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A comedic disaster of biblical proportions. |
Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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| Remember the 1939 Frank Capra classic Mr Smith Goes to Washington, in which James Stewart single-handedly sorted out corruption on Capitol Hill? Well, imagine the same idea updated by imbeciles, and you have an idea of the hell that is Evan Almighty. | | As the title implies, it is a sequel to Bruce Almighty, a sentimental, quasi-religious comedy redeemed by some sight-gags and a reluctance to embrace the worst excesses of preachiness. Would that this movie had taken the same approach. | | Jim Carrey has had nothing to do with Evan Almighty – proof at last that he can read - and the leading role has passed, like a malodorous albatross, to the hapless Steve Carell (pictured), who had a big hit with The Forty Year-Old Virgin. | | Out of Christian charity, all I will say about his performance is that every actor is entitled to one appalling mistake. Carell plays an amoral TV newscaster who is elected to Congress on a mandate to “change the world”, though he seems to have even fewer ideas on how to achieve this than David Cameron.Unaccountably, this self-serving twit is selected by God (Morgan Freeman) to sort out the problem that the Messiah feels needs resolving above all else: a scheme by a corrupt congressman (John Goodman) and some property developers to take land from America’s national parks and build on it. This may strike you - it certainly did me - as reflecting a bizarre scale of divine priorities. Apparently God is unconcerned with the deaths of thousands of people in Iraq, ethnic cleansing in the Sudan, or anything that President Mugabe is doing to the people of Zimbabwe. God is concerned only with preserving America’s version of the Green Belt. Well, well. Perhaps the Almighty turning out to be an environmentally-blinkered American might not be quite so egregiously offensive if any of the gags in Evan Almighty were remotely amusing, but they aren’t. | | The only reason the movie warrants one star is that the special effects are impressive, as is the flooding of a valley that ends up destroying the hero’s house and most of Washington DC. But the effects needed to be harnessed to a story that was funny, entertaining and/or believable, and they aren’t. | | If you want an idea of how imnplausible it is, the end of the movie shows our hero and his family larking around with a care in the world, even though their house and life savings have just been destroyed by an act of God. Somehow I don’t think this movie will go down well with the flood-damaged citizens of Tewkesbury. | | Director Tom Shadyac is a two-trick pony. One of his devices is to show us as many prat-falls as possible, preferably accompanied by birds or animals spitting, defecating or vomiting over actors - a technique with which he first bored us to distraction in the two Ace Ventura movies. | | His other trademark is to indulge in sanctimonious philosophising of a kind that would be regarded as emetic even in a telly evangelist’s greetings card. Shadyac first indulged his gluttony for schmaltz in the infamous Patch Adams, where you may remember Robin Williams caused a million gorges to rise as he taught little cancer victims that laughter is the best medicine. | | So be warned: attend Evan Almighty if you must, but don’t expect to laugh – and take a capacious sick bucket. | |
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