Mediatronixs Evan Almighty

God (Morgan Freeman) appears to newly-elected congressman Evan Baxter (Carrell) and instructs him to build an ark. Evan resists, but animals start following him (in pairs), so he begins work on the big boat in the expectation that a flood will come.

The movie was funny at moments, not as funny as Bruce Almighty, but was better at placing comedic moments throughout the film. The video quality is exceptional. The 1080p HD (2.35:1 aspect ratio) image provides a wealth of detail and color. There is little to no grain or noise. Just a few scenes lack detail. Overall, though, this is one heck of a great transfer from Universal Pictures. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is perfect. The dialogue is easy to understand, very good dynamics, especially during the flood scene. The water and the ark seem to make this track improve over the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track. It worked perfectly. The disc has a sufficient amount of extras, but a theatrical trailer would be nice. Overall this is a great disc from Universal.

Silly? Oh yes. Entertaining, well yeah it was. I didn't think I'd really like it, especially considering it was Steve Carell as the lead but I managed to quite enjoy this. It's a ridiculous idea but still in a way that manages to work, as long as you don't take it seriously. The cast works well together and with the exception of some bad CGI it comes together nicely in the end. Even Carell, who I normally don't like, is bareable and that's saying something! It's no Bruce Almighty but its OK.

The finale of "Evan Almighty" goes huge to pay off the enormity of the ark situation, requiring extravagant visual effects and a suitably thunderous act of God to fit all the pieces together. It's a heavy conclusion to a light picture, electing noise over cleverness to find a way out of the story. Again, this is not a tremendous picture, but it has a small amount of charm that's handled sensibly. Steamrolling over the viewer with aggressive flood activity only creates a headache, exiting the movie on a bloated note. While I recognize I'm one of the few to appreciate "Evan Almighty" for its miniature delights, I'm fine with the distinction, happy to praise a picture that doesn't stop dead to arrange sympathies nobody asked for in the first place.

'Evan Almighty' strongly lacks the hilarious jokes, the original hooks, and the ridiculous references that made 'Bruce Almighty' so great. This is yet another example of how a film with Jim Carrey in it will make you laugh, but the Carrey-less sequel will make you frown.