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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 2 August 2007

Steve Carell turns to ark-building in this sequence to Bruce Almighty

Summer of flooding rains on Noah's Parade

EVAN ALIMIGHTY
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Certificate PG

Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) was the TV newscaster we first saw in the surprise 2003 hit Bruce Almighty. Now they’ve made him the star of the sequel, elected to Congress for the small town of Huntsville, Virginia, with his motto: “Change the world.”
He takes his family off to a new life and a new plush mansion amid rolling countryside.
Out of the blue – and for reasons I have still to fathom – Evan is chosen to build an Ark by God (Morgan Freeman: yes, he’s black, and smart-casual in a natty cricket sweater and white slacks). Understandably, our man finds this God hard to believe, only to get the riposte: “You want proof? I haven’t done the pillar of salt thing for a while.”
It’s when the animals start gathering two-by-two on his front lawn that Evan realises something odd is about to happen. He grows a beard along with shoulder-length hair that turns snowy-white. Now he is indeed Noah.
Wooden implements are delivered to his door, as a massive Ark takes shape. Suddenly he’s a wow at woodwork.
The big problem with all this is that Steve Carell is a nice guy, but with none of the charisma needed to carry off the main role.
Despite a credit list numbering 1,045 names – with 30 animal trainers, so some of the creatures must be the real thing – the film merely limps from one lame joke to another.
The timing of its release is not exactly sensitive either, with so much of the country under water recently. I can’t see the good folk of Gloucester and Tewkesbury rushing to the head of the queue on this one.
At one point God utters the immortal words: “This doesn’t make any sense!” – always a mistake in front of beady-eyed critics.
’Nuff said!

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