Posted on 06/22/2007 7:10:53 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
If you've been paying attention, you might already know two things about "Evan Almighty." One: The family film about a congressman (Steve Carell) called upon by God to build an ark wound up costing an insane amount of money, something on the level of $200 million. And two: Because it's ostensibly a modern-day Noah story, Universal Pictures has been courting the church crowd, an audience it distinctly avoided with its last movie, "Knocked Up." Both bits of information are relevant because "Evan" might just be the most schizophrenic movie ever made. Yes, you could look at the film as the logical extension of director Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk's "Ace Ventura" movies — harmless, fitfully funny comedies with wacky animals doing wacky things. "Evan" has all that — and then some — since exotic animals, live and CG, show up on Evan's doorstep almost from the get-go.
The presence of so many varieties of animals and birds allow Shadyac and Oedekerk to mine poop humor with an intensity bordering on the pathological. Then again, one of the questions every kid asks when they hear the story about Noah's Ark is: What did Noah do with all the poop?
The Bible doesn't go much into waste management of course, but then as God (Morgan Freeman, reprising his role from the decidedly un-family friendly "Bruce Almighty) tells Evan: The Noah story isn't meant to be read literally. And besides, He says, people miss the point of it anyway. It's not about God's anger. It's actually a love story about believing in each other.
That may come as news to the evangelicals being asked to see the movie. Believers might also blanch at the fact that God is something of a radical environmentalist who listens to Al Gore (or maybe not — after all, Rick Warren does) or grimace when Evan's congressional aide (the always welcome Wanda Sykes) notes of her boss: If he gets any crazier, he'll be in the White House.
That's a cheap shot. As manic as Carell is (and his comic presence certainly makes "Evan" palatable, even for those not inclined to laugh at bird droppings), he'd have to be a whole lot crazier to give the current administration a run for its insanity.
The movie's message about changing the world by practicing "acts of random kindness" (which is an acronym for ARK, get it?) would feel a lot more genuine if "Evan" had cost, say a 10th of its final budget and had those involved plowed the rest of the money into various charitable causes. As it stands, the excessive "Evan" suffers from an affliction almost as old as the Bible — Hollywood hypocrisy.
Incidentally while working as a DVD merchandiser for Best Buy a few years back, the marketing firm gave the Field Representatives each a free copy of Bruce Almighty.
I disagree with you, Hollywood does have “values”, ie: money, fame, ego feeding, selfishness, sexual immorality, marital faithfulness, etc... Their values just don’t include morals, as I mentioned in my earlier post.
and....
There is a precise reason as to why God placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. Read Genesis 9.
Steve Carrell is hilarious. The “40-year-old virgin” should be mandatory viewing
lol. It was a good movie, but mandatory? haha.
“values”, ie: money, fame, ego feeding, selfishness, sexual immorality, marital faithfulness, etc...
Well it sells because Fred Thompson seems to be pretty popular on FR sadly.
You are so right, I meant MARITAL FAITHLESSNESS! God knows it isn’t faithfulness they practice. Thank you for catching that.
Oh you mean people’s private lives. I was reffering to the content of films. As this thread is about that.
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