Evan Almighty (7/10)
posted in Movie Reviews |
This is definitely one of those movies that you just have to completely check your brain at the door and go with for simple entertainment purposes.
Writing: Despite the lofty ambition of the production, the writing is going for the goal of hitting every genre mark possible. Sure, the idea behind the central concept is cool and clever. But surrounding that cool idea is every kind of stereotypical character and plot point. All of it is straight out of the Hollywood play book. There’s some clever dialog to be had, and surely a fine assortment of amusements, but they don’t hit all the marks they should, either. And the character of Evan Baxter is obviously changed a bit from Bruce Almighty, being made a nicer, likable character (of course - how else would one make this movie work, and get the new breakaway star fit into the plot).
Production: This is one very expensive comedy. From the sets to the locations, it all smells of money. Then there’s the effects, of which there are plenty. I’m not entirely sure how they pulled off the pitch for this film to the studio. They want to make a quasi-sequel to a movie that was only marginally successful originally, and they won’t a massive load of cash to do it. Were it not for the people directing and producing the film, the studio surely would have been nervous. Well, that and the current success of Steve Carrell.
Cast: Here is a strong suit of the film. Carrell is, of course, great. It’s definitely fun to see him enjoying such success. For this film, he gets to bring a couple of his former Daily Show buddies along for the fun, with appearances by Ed Helms as a reporter and John Stewart as himself in a couple clips of The Daily Show. Morgan Freeman returns as God, again having fun with the role. The fantastic Lauren Graham gets handed the hardest role in the film - the character of the wife who has to somehow try and ground this insane plot. She succeeds as much as I would think possible. Other cast members round out the plot and have fun with it. One of the highlights is surely the music number at the end of the film, where the cast and crew are clearly having a little bit too much fun.
Music: John Debney pulls out all the stops and puts forth a completely unrestrained score, which is fitting for this over-the-top comedy. He plays at the heart strings very obviously, embraces the Biblically epic moments, goes for the jokes, etc. Ironically, this score probably gave him more opportunities for the Biblical epic kind of cue than his genuine Biblical epic film score - The Passion Of The Christ. Overall, a decent score.
