Evan Almighty is a perfectly serviceable Tim Allen movie.
This is like saying Lindsay Lohan is just a little drunk. Does praise get fainter?
Frankly, we expected better, considering this sequel to 2003's Bruce Almighty is toplined not by Allen, but by Steve Carell of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine and TV's The Office. Sharp, uproarious efforts, all of them.
Hold your Hallelujahs here, though. Evan Almighty emerges as nothing more than a preachy, overpriced sitcom. It's as funny as an episode of 7th Heaven, yet without Jessica Biel on hand to so skillfully embody sin.
I can appreciate the need any star might feel to appeal to the great unwashed masses from time to time, but that doesn't mean I endorse it. (This is why Robin Williams offsets his niche, off-kilter work with low-brow farces every couple of years -- one RV lets him make two One Hour Photos.)
Reprising his supporting role from Bruce as obnoxious anchorman Evan Baxter, Carell this time is granted a heretofore unseen wife (Lauren Graham, utterly wasted here) and a new gig: As a newly-elected U.S. congressman.
Also returning, and presumably cashing a substantial cheque, is Morgan Freeman, once more playing God and enlisting Evan to build an ark, a la the bibilical Noah.
Evan scoffs at first, but there's no ducking God's will. Animals begin to gravitate to him, side by side, in pairs. He becomes unnaturally hirsute and, after much agonizing, begins to construct a boat measured in cubits, not metres.
Upgrading Carell from Carrey's foil to leading man sounds like a stroke of brilliance; Carell, after all, swiped the original out from the former pet detective.
Yet Evan Almighty gives the actor frustratingly little to do, aside from mug opposite a cavalcade of authentic and computer-generated animals. Presumably these antics might have suited the elastic escapades of Carrey, but Carell, as gifted as he is, lacks his predecessor's nimble physicality. Or maybe he's just as bored as the rest of us.
Possibly overwhelmed by the $175-million US budget, director Tom Shadyac has made a movie for everyone that will appease no one. It favours mediocrity over hilarity, familiarity over ambition.
Still, if there's any good to be found here, it's that Evan will give kids and adults of all creeds and religions something to agree upon: That a comedy needs to be funny first. Anything less is blasphemous.
(This film is rated G)
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