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Evan Almighty (HD DVD)
Universal // PG // October 9, 2007 // Region 0
List Price: $39.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
"This better be good 'cause that's a lot of money."
- Wanda Sykes, taken completely out of context from one of Evan Almighty's extras
Okay, okay...I know what you're thinking. "He's reviewing Evan Almighty now? Didn't that come out, like, six months ago?" Sorry. It just took me a while to muster up the courage, and Evan Almighty really is that awful. Even though sequels of Jim Carrey movies with
different actors in the lead have never exactly lit up the box office -- check out Dumb and Dumberer or Son of the Mask if you're feeling sadistic -- Universal not only opted to greenlight this sequel-in-name-only to Bruce Almighty but ponied up $175 million to do it. Evan Almighty holds the record as the most lavishly overbudgeted comedy of all time, and...nope, Universal really didn't get their money's worth.
Maybe "sequel in name only" is a little harsh. Evan Almighty does carry over a couple of actors from the original, including...hey! Evan Baxter (Steve Carell). Evan, the prickish anchorman from Bruce Almighty, has somehow established himself as a likeable congressional candidate who was elected on a "Change the world!" platform. It's just that Evan has devoted so much time and energy to his political career that he's had to shove his family to the sidelines, and although they're okay with shacking up in an oversized house and tooling around in a gas-guzzling SUV, they really just want their father back.
Evan has other things on his mind, though. Not having the slightest idea how to live up to his arbitrary, empty promise to change the world, Evan grudgingly decides to pray for a push in the right direction. God (Morgan Freeman) responds in kind, but it takes Evan a while to accept that he's been tapped by the Almighty to build an ark. Since God has decided to drop him in the role of a modern day Noah, He wants Evan to look the part; his hair and beard grow uncontrollably, he takes to wearing robes that look like they were yanked out of Cecil DeMille's closet, and finds himself swarmed by pairs of animals every step he takes. Evan's bizarre behavior alienates his family, makes him a late night punchline, and catches the ire of the environmentally exploitative Congressman Long (John Goodman). Still, Evan's faith never wavers once he starts
hammering away at the ark, attracting the attention of a nation as he insists that a great flood is coming.
Despite what Universal's heavy marketing muscle would have you believe, Evan Almighty isn't a family movie. No, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that it's teeming with nasty language or vulgar humor. I'm just one of those people who likes to make the distinction between a family movie and a kids' movie, and Evan Almighty is squarely aimed towards the junior set. If you think stiff white guy dances are hysterical, howl at guys in suits being bombarded by bird poop, clap with delight when a raccoon covers his eyes with his paws, or are easily distracted by shiny things, then congrats! You're the target demographic for Evan Almighty. Me...? Pushing thirty and preferring my comedies to be...y'know, funny? Not so much. There's literally not a single laugh to be had anywhere in this cloying, oversentimental trainwreck. It kind of goes without saying that Evan Almighty is preachy and heavy-handed with its moral messages about family, the environment, and religion, being directed by the same schmaltz slinger behind Patch Adams and all. While I have no problem with any of those messages, quadruple-underlining them like this is a made-for-TV movie on PAX is just unpleasant, especially since Evan Almighty just coasts on its army of cute animals and never bothers being all that imaginative or funny.
Evan Almighty is a complete and total failure. There's no bite or wit to the comedy at all, playing it as vanilla and inoffensive as possible, and as much of a fan of Lauren Graham and Steve Carell as I am, their talents are wholly wasted here in this sanctimonious schmaltz. The cutesy critters and some of the grander shots of the scale of Evan's divine undertaking are really all Evan Almighty has going for it. Might be worth renting if you're the parent of a couple of Animal Planet-crazed six year olds and don't mind rushing out of the room the instant you've mashed "Play", but otherwise...? Skip It.
Video: Well, at least Evan Almighty looks great. The 2.39:1 image is crisp and well-defined, overflowing with fine object detail, and no flecks of dust or other flaws with the source were spotted throughout. The cinematography does have a somewhat off-kilter visual style; contrast is slightly skewed, and the palette looks rather dark instead of sporting the bright, candy-colored hues I went in expecting. Some film grain does creep in from time to time as well, but the VC-1 encoding handles it adeptly enough that the grain retains its natural texture and never devolves into a smeary, blocky mess. Evan Almighty isn't exactly a reference quality HD DVD, but the movie does look every bit like the glossy, big-budget summer tentpole that it is.
Evan Almighty is another of Universal's combo releases, meaning that it sports a standard definition version of the movie playable in any traditional DVD player on the
flipside of the disc.
Audio: Universal opted against giving Evan Almighty the lossless treatment, so there's no TrueHD soundtrack this time around. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is still a solid effort, though. While most comedies stick to the same familiar sound design, reserving the surrounds to lightly reinforce all of the action spread across the front channels, Evan Almighty is quite a bit more spry and active. The sqwawking, snorting, and flapping of the couple hundred different critters scattered throughout the film fill each and every speaker, and the tumultuous thunder and devastation in the climax really take advantage of the multichannel setup and beefy bitrate of the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack. I really only have one gripe, although it's kind of a big one -- an awful lot of the dialogue throughout the movie has a clipped, lightly distorted quality to it. That's unacceptable for such a high-profile flick heading straight out of theaters, but otherwise, Evan Almighty's audio does sound great.
A French dub has also been included alongside subtitles in English and French.
Extras: This HD DVD of Evan Almighty took home the nod for "Most Innovative Use of New Technology" at the first ever High Def Awards for its U-Shop functionality, which lets viewers buy movie swag and green-friendly gear through their players' online connectivity. The disc's other Internet-enabled features also allow users to download a handful of trailers for other Universal releases along with one online-exclusive Evan Almighty extra: a quippy guided tour of the Capitol Building set by John Michael Higgins.
Also exclusive to this HD DVD is another of Universal's U-Control in-movie experiences, and there are three different components to the feature this time around. "Get on Board" has animals popping up throughout the movie with environmentally friendly tips like recycle!, use flourescent bulbs!, and insulate your water heater! "Ark Building for Dummies" reads like a mini-instruction manual for putting together your own ark using the tools and materials Noah had handy back in the Old Testament days. Of course, the centerpiece of the U-Control is a picture-in-picture commentary, incorporating quite a bit of behind the scenes footage, interviews with the cast and crew, and peeks at storyboards, animatics, and various stages of the visual effects. Some material is recycled from the other extras on the disc, but most of it is unique to the U-Control, running through why Steve Carell took center stage in the sequel, costume design, animal training, the improvisational atmosphere on the set, and the elaborate visual effects work in the climax. The picture-in-picture video also serves up a look at Carell trying to convince a dog to sniff his crotch, some of Wanda Sykes' rapid-fire one-liners, and Morgan Freeman as he polished off his last shot on the film. Sure, Evan Almighy as a movie may be lousy, but this is one of Universal's better U-Control features.
The only of the disc's extras to be presented in high definition is the Animal Round-Up Game, which sports a high-def introduction and helpful hints by actor Jimmy Bennett. The game itself is pretty simple -- match pairs of animals (which are in plain view, so what the challenge is there, I have no idea) and answer trivia questions before the water levels rise too high. The "Animal Wrangle" feature lobs out background info on some of the animal actors throughout Evan Almighty, including other movies they've been in and general facts about their species,
as well as letting viewers skip directly to shots in the movie featuring 'em.
The other extras are carried over from the DVD as-is, with only the quick and fluffy "Casting Call: Serengeti" not making the cut on the HD DVD side of the disc. With as tepid as the movie itself is, it kinda goes without saying that the stuff that wasn't good enough to make it into Evan Almighty is even worse. The centerpiece of the deleted scenes reel (15 min.) is that mighty cliché of the dog in peril, which is particularly hysterical since it was ditched before any music or visual effects had been added, so Steve Carell is just frantically darting around the yard in a massive white beard on an especially sunny day with no hint of any actual danger in sight. Some lame sexual innuendo and, uh, a borderline-racist one-liner that really wouldn't have gelled with the overly family-friendly tone of the movie have also been included. "Steve Carell Unscripted" (3 min.) is every bit as eye-rollingly devoid of any actual humor, just following the actor as he clowns around on the set, and the three minute outtake reel is equally forgettable.
A long list of featurettes rounds out the extras, including a look at the many different stages of the elaborate hair and beard make-up applied to Steve Carell day in and day out (6 min.), the design and construction behind the movie's full-sized, historically accurate ark (7 min.), a look at how the overwhelming number of animals were trained and photographed for the movie (13 min.), and the digital critters and waterlogged chaos that ILM and company helped assemble (7 min.). Some of the other extras are kind of self-congratulatory, noting how Evan Almighty was a "green" shoot, clearing out its carbon footprint by planting a couple thousand trees, having the crew ride bikes whenever possible, and designing the ark to be disassembled for use in future Habitat for Humanity projects. "It's Easy Being Green" (5 min.) throws out a steady stream of energy saving tips, the cast and producers rattle off a few examples of random acts of kindness for a minute and change, and "The Almighty Forest" is nothing but a long list of names contributing to some arbor-tastic green project.
Conclusion: Cloying, hypersentimental, unerringly predictable, and completely devoid of anything resembling a sense of humor, Evan Almighty isn't quite the Biblical disaster that the great flood was but is about as close as a $175 million Hollywood flick can get. Skip It.
The images scattered around this review are promotional stills and aren't meant to represent the way the movie looks in high definition.
- Wanda Sykes, taken completely out of context from one of Evan Almighty's extras
Okay, okay...I know what you're thinking. "He's reviewing Evan Almighty now? Didn't that come out, like, six months ago?" Sorry. It just took me a while to muster up the courage, and Evan Almighty really is that awful. Even though sequels of Jim Carrey movies with
different actors in the lead have never exactly lit up the box office -- check out Dumb and Dumberer or Son of the Mask if you're feeling sadistic -- Universal not only opted to greenlight this sequel-in-name-only to Bruce Almighty but ponied up $175 million to do it. Evan Almighty holds the record as the most lavishly overbudgeted comedy of all time, and...nope, Universal really didn't get their money's worth. Maybe "sequel in name only" is a little harsh. Evan Almighty does carry over a couple of actors from the original, including...hey! Evan Baxter (Steve Carell). Evan, the prickish anchorman from Bruce Almighty, has somehow established himself as a likeable congressional candidate who was elected on a "Change the world!" platform. It's just that Evan has devoted so much time and energy to his political career that he's had to shove his family to the sidelines, and although they're okay with shacking up in an oversized house and tooling around in a gas-guzzling SUV, they really just want their father back.
Evan has other things on his mind, though. Not having the slightest idea how to live up to his arbitrary, empty promise to change the world, Evan grudgingly decides to pray for a push in the right direction. God (Morgan Freeman) responds in kind, but it takes Evan a while to accept that he's been tapped by the Almighty to build an ark. Since God has decided to drop him in the role of a modern day Noah, He wants Evan to look the part; his hair and beard grow uncontrollably, he takes to wearing robes that look like they were yanked out of Cecil DeMille's closet, and finds himself swarmed by pairs of animals every step he takes. Evan's bizarre behavior alienates his family, makes him a late night punchline, and catches the ire of the environmentally exploitative Congressman Long (John Goodman). Still, Evan's faith never wavers once he starts
hammering away at the ark, attracting the attention of a nation as he insists that a great flood is coming. Despite what Universal's heavy marketing muscle would have you believe, Evan Almighty isn't a family movie. No, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that it's teeming with nasty language or vulgar humor. I'm just one of those people who likes to make the distinction between a family movie and a kids' movie, and Evan Almighty is squarely aimed towards the junior set. If you think stiff white guy dances are hysterical, howl at guys in suits being bombarded by bird poop, clap with delight when a raccoon covers his eyes with his paws, or are easily distracted by shiny things, then congrats! You're the target demographic for Evan Almighty. Me...? Pushing thirty and preferring my comedies to be...y'know, funny? Not so much. There's literally not a single laugh to be had anywhere in this cloying, oversentimental trainwreck. It kind of goes without saying that Evan Almighty is preachy and heavy-handed with its moral messages about family, the environment, and religion, being directed by the same schmaltz slinger behind Patch Adams and all. While I have no problem with any of those messages, quadruple-underlining them like this is a made-for-TV movie on PAX is just unpleasant, especially since Evan Almighty just coasts on its army of cute animals and never bothers being all that imaginative or funny.
Evan Almighty is a complete and total failure. There's no bite or wit to the comedy at all, playing it as vanilla and inoffensive as possible, and as much of a fan of Lauren Graham and Steve Carell as I am, their talents are wholly wasted here in this sanctimonious schmaltz. The cutesy critters and some of the grander shots of the scale of Evan's divine undertaking are really all Evan Almighty has going for it. Might be worth renting if you're the parent of a couple of Animal Planet-crazed six year olds and don't mind rushing out of the room the instant you've mashed "Play", but otherwise...? Skip It.
Video: Well, at least Evan Almighty looks great. The 2.39:1 image is crisp and well-defined, overflowing with fine object detail, and no flecks of dust or other flaws with the source were spotted throughout. The cinematography does have a somewhat off-kilter visual style; contrast is slightly skewed, and the palette looks rather dark instead of sporting the bright, candy-colored hues I went in expecting. Some film grain does creep in from time to time as well, but the VC-1 encoding handles it adeptly enough that the grain retains its natural texture and never devolves into a smeary, blocky mess. Evan Almighty isn't exactly a reference quality HD DVD, but the movie does look every bit like the glossy, big-budget summer tentpole that it is.
Evan Almighty is another of Universal's combo releases, meaning that it sports a standard definition version of the movie playable in any traditional DVD player on the
flipside of the disc. Audio: Universal opted against giving Evan Almighty the lossless treatment, so there's no TrueHD soundtrack this time around. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is still a solid effort, though. While most comedies stick to the same familiar sound design, reserving the surrounds to lightly reinforce all of the action spread across the front channels, Evan Almighty is quite a bit more spry and active. The sqwawking, snorting, and flapping of the couple hundred different critters scattered throughout the film fill each and every speaker, and the tumultuous thunder and devastation in the climax really take advantage of the multichannel setup and beefy bitrate of the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack. I really only have one gripe, although it's kind of a big one -- an awful lot of the dialogue throughout the movie has a clipped, lightly distorted quality to it. That's unacceptable for such a high-profile flick heading straight out of theaters, but otherwise, Evan Almighty's audio does sound great.
A French dub has also been included alongside subtitles in English and French.
Extras: This HD DVD of Evan Almighty took home the nod for "Most Innovative Use of New Technology" at the first ever High Def Awards for its U-Shop functionality, which lets viewers buy movie swag and green-friendly gear through their players' online connectivity. The disc's other Internet-enabled features also allow users to download a handful of trailers for other Universal releases along with one online-exclusive Evan Almighty extra: a quippy guided tour of the Capitol Building set by John Michael Higgins.
Also exclusive to this HD DVD is another of Universal's U-Control in-movie experiences, and there are three different components to the feature this time around. "Get on Board" has animals popping up throughout the movie with environmentally friendly tips like recycle!, use flourescent bulbs!, and insulate your water heater! "Ark Building for Dummies" reads like a mini-instruction manual for putting together your own ark using the tools and materials Noah had handy back in the Old Testament days. Of course, the centerpiece of the U-Control is a picture-in-picture commentary, incorporating quite a bit of behind the scenes footage, interviews with the cast and crew, and peeks at storyboards, animatics, and various stages of the visual effects. Some material is recycled from the other extras on the disc, but most of it is unique to the U-Control, running through why Steve Carell took center stage in the sequel, costume design, animal training, the improvisational atmosphere on the set, and the elaborate visual effects work in the climax. The picture-in-picture video also serves up a look at Carell trying to convince a dog to sniff his crotch, some of Wanda Sykes' rapid-fire one-liners, and Morgan Freeman as he polished off his last shot on the film. Sure, Evan Almighy as a movie may be lousy, but this is one of Universal's better U-Control features.
The only of the disc's extras to be presented in high definition is the Animal Round-Up Game, which sports a high-def introduction and helpful hints by actor Jimmy Bennett. The game itself is pretty simple -- match pairs of animals (which are in plain view, so what the challenge is there, I have no idea) and answer trivia questions before the water levels rise too high. The "Animal Wrangle" feature lobs out background info on some of the animal actors throughout Evan Almighty, including other movies they've been in and general facts about their species,
as well as letting viewers skip directly to shots in the movie featuring 'em. The other extras are carried over from the DVD as-is, with only the quick and fluffy "Casting Call: Serengeti" not making the cut on the HD DVD side of the disc. With as tepid as the movie itself is, it kinda goes without saying that the stuff that wasn't good enough to make it into Evan Almighty is even worse. The centerpiece of the deleted scenes reel (15 min.) is that mighty cliché of the dog in peril, which is particularly hysterical since it was ditched before any music or visual effects had been added, so Steve Carell is just frantically darting around the yard in a massive white beard on an especially sunny day with no hint of any actual danger in sight. Some lame sexual innuendo and, uh, a borderline-racist one-liner that really wouldn't have gelled with the overly family-friendly tone of the movie have also been included. "Steve Carell Unscripted" (3 min.) is every bit as eye-rollingly devoid of any actual humor, just following the actor as he clowns around on the set, and the three minute outtake reel is equally forgettable.
A long list of featurettes rounds out the extras, including a look at the many different stages of the elaborate hair and beard make-up applied to Steve Carell day in and day out (6 min.), the design and construction behind the movie's full-sized, historically accurate ark (7 min.), a look at how the overwhelming number of animals were trained and photographed for the movie (13 min.), and the digital critters and waterlogged chaos that ILM and company helped assemble (7 min.). Some of the other extras are kind of self-congratulatory, noting how Evan Almighty was a "green" shoot, clearing out its carbon footprint by planting a couple thousand trees, having the crew ride bikes whenever possible, and designing the ark to be disassembled for use in future Habitat for Humanity projects. "It's Easy Being Green" (5 min.) throws out a steady stream of energy saving tips, the cast and producers rattle off a few examples of random acts of kindness for a minute and change, and "The Almighty Forest" is nothing but a long list of names contributing to some arbor-tastic green project.
Conclusion: Cloying, hypersentimental, unerringly predictable, and completely devoid of anything resembling a sense of humor, Evan Almighty isn't quite the Biblical disaster that the great flood was but is about as close as a $175 million Hollywood flick can get. Skip It.
The images scattered around this review are promotional stills and aren't meant to represent the way the movie looks in high definition.
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