Evan Almighty received loads of press before its release thanks to its over the top budget, and it was critically damned in the same vein as Waterworld, thanks to such press. However I think Waterworld went on to be the best attraction show at Universal Studios theme park, so perhaps Evan Almighty isn’t so bad either.

Directed by Todd Shadyac, the movie stars Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman,  Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes, and more bit parts as filled by Jonah Hill, John Michael Higgins, and Molly Shannon. The story follows Evan Baxter, a newly elected congressman and the former news anchor from the film “Bruce Almighty” as he becomes involved in plot to build an ark as set up by God ala the whole Noah thing from the Bible.

First off for people referring to this as a sequel: it is not. This is more of a spin-off and does not come with any of the same vibe as Bruce Almighty. This film is even more of a family and morals orientated piece looking to cash in on the majority of America which is in all reality Christians that voted George Bush into office twice.

Carell is just as annoying as he was in Bruce Almighty, with dialog being replaced mainly with yells and voices coming out of his mouth. The side characters such as Jonah Hill’s and Wanda Sykes’ provide some comic relief, but not enough. They were more interesting than the rest of the cast.

The movie is not funny. Therefore if you are looking for humor such as Bruce Almighty this isn’t what you are getting into. This is an alternative for Christians to have some lighthearted family adventure aside from all of the eternal damnation and such of the popular “Left Behind” series. As this sort of work it is excellent. I cannot say the film was bad, because for what it was it was good. Even if that sort of movie is not the sort to impress me it was perfectly crafted for its demographic and I highly recommend it to Christians with a safe sense of humor.

The ending and special effects would work perfectly as a Universal Studios attraction, just like Waterworld, interconnecting those two films on yet another level. Personally I prefer Waterworld and some Kevin Costner fish man violence, and those who enjoyed that movie like I did probably aren’t going to dig Evan Almighty either. Family friendly and safe, Evan Almighty may prove to have been marketing genius once Dvd sales come in, however, church goers didn’t really give it the high support it needed at the theatres because possibly they were at home pondering, how did Noah get whales, fish, and various water creatures on to the ark?

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