7/13/07

Evan Almighty

Steve Carell is a nice guy. If he isn't, he has fooled a LOT of people! He played the ambitious television news reporter who gets his tongue all tangled up when Jim Carrey is blessed with God-like powers in "Bruce Almighty" a few years ago.

Steve, who has primarily focused on television ("The Office"), is now a movie star! His first starring role, as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" won raves. Based on that success, he was cast in this incredibly expensive, incredibly bland, sorta semi-religious movie.

He is a newly elected Congressman who moves to a new house in the DC area. His wife, played by Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls") is a pleasant, supportive wife and mother who is as determined for him to make a success of this as he is. (They both just want to "make a difference...")

Naturally, God, once again played by Morgan Freeman ("Shawshank Redemption," "Nurse Betty" and "Along Came a Spider"), shows up and begins interfering with our hero's life. Evan gets a package from UPS which contains ancient wood-working tools. Next a realtor tells him how happy she is he purchased the adjacent lots. Soon there are trucks unloading lumber.

Even though God had told him to build an ark, poor Evan was caught up in some new land-use legislation and had decided he was probably hallucinating.

If you've seen the trailers, you know he grows a beard he can't shave off, he is coerced into wearing sandals and a robe, and all sorts of animals start showing up...two by two...

Poor Steve Carell. He didn't deserve to be in such an expensive movie. The plot itself is overkill, to say nothing of the CGI required to bring the story to a climax.

Don't blame him, okay? Blame the "suits" who play God in Hollywood!