DVD review (region 1)
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Starring Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman
Release date Out now

Former news anchorman Evan Baxter heads to Washington DC for a new role in politics. However, Evan’s ambitions face a small hurdle when God appears and tells him to build an Ark…

Steve Carell has become such an established funnyman since his supporting turn in 2003’s so-so comedy Bruce Almighty, that he now has the honour of his own name above the title for this follow up. Carell makes for a likeable, amusing lead, whether he’s addressing Congress dressed in full Noah garb or being followed about by animals in their two-by-twos, and he goes a long way in helping you forgive some of the film’s feebler moments.

Like the original, the laughs are decidedly hit and miss – for every chortlesome attempt by Evan to try and explain away his bizarre appearance to his colleagues you have to put up with a bird crapping over somebody’s suit. The comedy is more family-friendly this time round though, meaning that little ones may gain some extra chuckles out of Carell repeatedly tripping over or whacking his thumb with a hammer.

Able support comes in the form of the magnificently-jowly John Goodman as a unscrupulous Congressman, Lauren Graham doing commendably as Evan’s straight-laced, underwritten wife and Wanda Sykes, as Evan’s secretary, who does a marginally less angry turn than she did in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Morgan Freeman can probably do the whole twinkly-eyed do-gooder routine in his sleep by now, though there’s still something inherently creepy about his perma-grinning, white-catsuited God figure.

The plot’s a nonsense of course and hardly worth criticising, though you need to wade through a few tedious exposition-heavy scene-setting and scene-closing scenes. What does let the movie down is the hideous stick-in-the-craw sentimentality, something that mars much of director Tom Shadyac and writer Steve Oedekerk’s work from Liar Liar to Patch Adams. If you can get past that, Evan Almighty is perfectly watchable, if instantly forgettable. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 6/10
Mostly harmless. Except for the jig at the end.