I didn't expect much when I bought this film, actually I never even heard there was a sequel to the wonderful Bruce Almighty until I noticed the similar names while browsing in a shop, and I remembered the name Evan. How could anyone forget Evan Baxter from the first movie? His performance, although short, was fantastic, and the scene where Bruce was messing with him was very memorable.
I found Evan Almighty to be quite good, in contrast to some of the reviews here. I was very surprised to see this movie scoring at only 5.7 at the time of this review. Sure there were some cheesy scenes, Wanda Sykes' lines were hit and miss, Jonah Hill as Eugene was just... weird.... but those things don't detract from what is a solid movie with lots of laughter. The only thing I can think of is that Carrey fans would probably be disappointed, as there's less slapstick action but more subtle humor. This is because Steve Carell has a different style, so it's extremely unfair to compare him to Jim Carrey.
This is a family comedy with excellent morals. It should definitely be viewed with the entire family. I enjoyed the humor from Carell, I thought the character for him was spot-on and really gave him an opportunity to shine on the stage. Lauren Graham was decent, I thought she played a deeper character than in Bad Santa, but she was okay as the wife. Morgan Freeman was great as usual. The other characters all did well including John Goodman but Carell carried this movie. There are some surprises that some may find cheesy or too predictable, but the final scene was immense. It was definitely more powerful than any scene from Bruce Almighty.
So give Evan Almighty a chance, rent it at least. It's a nice movie that I really can't find any glaring faults that would turn someone off.
