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Evan Almighty
Universal Pictures


4.8

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 103 votes
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FILM:

Bruce Almighty

MPAA RATING: PG for mild rude humor and some peril

Starring Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, Wanda Sykes, John Michael Higgins, Jonah Hill, Molly Shannon, and John Goodman

Steve Carell, reprising his role as the polished, preening newscaster Evan Baxter of "Bruce Almighty," is the next one appointed by God to accomplish a holy mission. Newly elected to Congress, Evan leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life gets turned upside-down when God (Freeman) appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark. But his befuddled family just can't decide whether Evan is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis or is truly onto something of Biblical proportions. (Universal)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Fantasy
WRITTEN BY:	Steve Oedekerk (also story) Joel Cohen (story) Alec Sokolow (story) Steve Koren & Mark O'Keefe (characters)
DIRECTED BY:	Tom Shadyac
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 9, 2007 Theatrical: June 22, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	89 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Though far from a disaster of Biblical proportions, Evan Almighty is a mild, sporadically funny comedy in an oversized sentimental frame.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Carell and Freeman are great together and Wanda Sykes' acerbic humor is perfect for her role as Evan's perplexed assistant.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Evan Almighty may not be enough to make you shout ''Hallelujah,'' but it's not the cinematic equivalent of a plague, either.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

What makes the film transcend its limitations is Carell, whose square, "Father Knows Best" demeanor belies a supreme comic self-confidence and whose implacability in the face of the movie's CGI-intensive animal antics can be marvelous to behold.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The message is so good-hearted, so inarguable, so dull.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Amusing in pieces but, taken as a whole, it offers little, and the morality lesson is galling.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Carell is lovable as God's unwilling disciple. But the comedy is less than divine.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Wanda Sykes and John Michael Higgins have energy as Evan's aides, and Jonah Hill (hot off "Knocked Up") gets laughs as a sycophantic researcher, but Graham has no chance to show what she can do.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

In Evan Almighty, Mr. God goes to Washington. Frank Capra, stop rolling in your grave. At least they cared enough to steal from the very best.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The film is a so-so slog through a torrent of tired jokes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

You'd hope God would think bigger for His divine intervention in American politics.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Carell's frantic mugging as a modern-day Noah barely keeps Evan Almighty afloat.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Carell is getting quite good as these everyman characters but lacks the audacity of, say, a Carrey or a Robin Williams. He is making comedy out of dullness.

Variety Brian Lowry

It's mildly diverting for kids and families in a way that would be perfectly fine as an ABC Family cable project.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Ultimately, Evan Almighty is too sappy, too sanctimonious.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Only in the last 30 minutes does Evan Almighty put his gifts to decent use. Epically hairy and biblically robed, Carell suggests at that point what a bolder, more psychologically serious treatment of religious conviction would have been like.

Slate Dana Stevens

I really hope Evan Almighty doesn't become a surprise hit with a niche audience (Christian, environmentalist 8-year-olds?). Too much worldly success might tempt Steve Carell away from the righteous path of making movies as dark, weird, and funny as he is himself.

Premiere Eric Alt

The film wraps up in a neat, environmentally friendly package that might keep some kids entertained but will leave adults yawning.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A movie far less interesting than its premise. It is also slightly less interesting than its hugely popular predecessor, "Bruce Almighty."

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Freeman's God is a mix of Old and New Testament, with a dash of both sexism and sitcom; Carell's Noah is a political fool, but that only proves he's honest and sincere. This is idiotic, but it's so good-natured I didn't mind.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Evan Almighty runs out of comic invention early, and the filmmakers fall back on what real politicians do when they exhaust their small stash of ideas: brainless piety.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Though it's quite possibly an even worse film than "Bruce Almighty," the sequel offers at least one consolation: The smug and increasingly unfunny Jim Carrey is replaced by the very talented Steve Carell.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Carell's pal and "Daily Show" colleague Jon Stewart has a cameo as himself, one of a chorus of godless media star non-believers who do not see God's larger plan for Evan. Yes, well. At least "The Daily Show" is funny.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's an almighty, humorless bore.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Carell is on the fast track to becoming Robin Williams, a guy who lost the plot far too early on and began pouring his considerable comic gifts into brain-dead heart-warmers.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Bland jokes and lazy contrivances.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's Carell who projects the movie's only sense of mischief. But it's too little and too late.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

It goes without saying that Evan Almighty, a kid-friendly follow-up to the Jim Carrey vehicle "Bruce Almighty," is more Ronald McDonald than Holy Bible, but it didn't have to be this epically trite.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A limp, slow-moving and desperately unfunny comedy.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

An unnecessary sequel to the equally unnecessary "Bruce Almighty."

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

It marks an unfortunate low point in the history of recent American comedy. There goes Steve Carell's perfect game.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This is movie-making by and for dummies, a sappy little bible story, blissed out on its own ineptitude.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A colossal dud.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 103 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Christopher W. gave it a3:
This film nearly left me dumbfounded. The plot is so insipid and lame, the ending so ludicrous, that I found myself distracted by the idiocy of the makers. There are bits of humor and some fun little chuckles. However, what this movie amounts to, despite its good cast, is a whole lot of money wasted, much like that which one spends on an expensive trinket that breaks the first time you use it. BooHoo!

Steve gave it a9:
Me and my family enjoyed this movie immensely. This is because there was little to no offensive material at all. It was a story that inspired faith in God and trusting Him even when things were not looking like they were going to work out. With many good biblical references and light hearted situations, this movie will actually make you feal better about lifes trials after seeing it. To only go by what the critics are saying about this movie will leave you missing a really good time.

Jeremy S. gave it a9:
A movie made for families that is sure to please. Clearly those reviewing this movie have not adopted the frame of reference of a child or tired parent!

J J gave it a7:
A good family movie.

Mark B. gave it a7:
The best on-screen portrayal of the Deity of all time was given not by George Burns or Morgan Freeman, but over 70 years ago by Rex Ingram. In the 1936 film version of Marc Connelly's The Green Pastures, a reimagining of Old Testament Bible stories as Connelly assumed that many African-Americans saw them (and still an extremely entertaining and moving film, if you choose to overlook certain attitudes that were inextricably part of its time), Ingram plays "de Lawd" with tremendous dignity, majesty and a sly sense of humor. So it's absolutely no insult to Morgan Freeman to place him a close second to Ingram in the all-time cinematic God sweepstakes; unlike George Burns, who plays him a little TOO folksy for my tastes, Freeman balances wisdom, authority and casualness perfectly--and looks better in a white suit than Steve Martin and Tom Wolfe combined! Freeman's first appearance in his "biggest" role was opposite Jim Carrey in the underrated Bruce Almighty, a consistently amusing and occasionally rather insightful mainstream comedy whose major point--that man is completely incapable and ill-equipped to "play God"--is one that even some atheists and agnostics can live with. In this pleasant, family-oriented sequel, Freeman returns, issuing divine orders to the title character (Steve Carell, a newscaster in the first film and a politician here) to build an ark because, well, the heavenly weather forecast is calling for LOTS of rain. A major sticking point is that in the Book of Genesis, God promised Noah that He'd never flood the earth again, but this movie sidesteps this particular caveat rather cleverly. I also admired Evan Almighty's subtle conservationist message; it's puzzled me for a long time that the right wing has been so successfully able to hijack the energy issue almost to the degree of convincing a substantial portion of the fundamentalist community that Al Gore is practically the Antichrist, when it seems far more logical for Christians to want to exercise judicious stewardship over what God has entrusted man with rather than prodigally burning through it as though tomorrow's never coming. (Notably, some Christian leaders, such as Rick Warren, have recently thrown in with the environmentalists.) As a comedy, Evan Almighty has its flaws; being a Noah's Ark movie there are inevitably lots of jokes about animals, but noticeably quite a few more deal with what comes out of them than what goes in, which appears to be both a biological and a mathematical impossibility. But you don't have to be God Himself to be able to forgive the movie's faults anytime Freeman or Carell (who's a riot whether trying to control his kids, his critters, or his rapidly growing acres of unruly facial hair) are onscreen, individually or together. There's nobody around these days who's more capable than Carell of blending silliness and sympathy: in his TV series The Office he can make you cringe with embarrassment at his character's clueless gaucheries one moment and break your heart over his loneliness the next...and then, of course, there's his breakthrough movie The 40 Year Old Virgin, in which he and Catherine Keener transformed two hours of dick jokes into a surprisingly poignant, resonant love story. Evan Almighty doesn't always completely open the comedic floodgates, but Carell and Freeman are such consummate miracle workers that they more than keep this ark afloat.

[Anonymous] gave it a1:
Amazingly boring... Biblical connotations are completely missing any point.

Ramzeeze B. gave it a4:
There was no point in the whole story. the story just sucked but the comedy that came with it was somewhat funny.

Evan Almighty Universal Pictures

Evan Almighty
Universal Pictures