Evan Almighty follows the story of Evan Baxter (Steve Carell). Anyone who saw Bruce Almighty will recognize Evan Baxter as the other reporter - the one who made things miserable for Bruce (Jim Carrey) and had the tables turned on him. Well, Evan Baxter has moved up in the world in Evan Almighty, quitting his reporter position to become a junior congressman trying to, "Change the World." This is another thing that worried me about Evan Almighty; I was afraid that Steve Carell wouldn't be able to fill Jim Carrey's shoes and support the sequel. As it turns out, I had nothing to fear. Steve Carell does an excellent job, as does his nemesis, who's played by John Goodman. Let's see... I suppose that means that the next sequel in the series will follow John Goodman's character, and God will need him to play a modern day version of, um... perhaps Moses? I dunno... I don't write the scripts, so I guess we'll all just have to wait and see on that one.
Evan Baxter gets elected as a junior congressman and moves into a rich, ritzy neighborhood, dragging his family along, kicking and screaming (well, until they see the size of the new house, anyway), in a self-centered life of high-pressure politics, where his family is having to learn to take a back seat. After a series of prayers, where his wife prays for the family to become closer, his son prays for lots of animals to come to their new house for him to play with and Evan prays to be able to fulfill his promise of "changing the world," God decides to directly intervene in the Baxters' lives, asking Evan to build an ark and, as they say, comedy ensues.
It was funny to see some of the puns that were worked into the movie, as well as how Noah's "power" to attract the animals to his location was played for comedic value. While Evan Almighty is a comedy, it also has some very romantic moments. Packaged with a bevy of special features, including some funny outtakes and deleted scenes, along with bunches of featurettes, is a really funny movie for the entire family. If you liked Bruce Almighty, I would recommend Evan Almighty.
