'Evan Almighty' just isn't funny

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

Evan can wait. It's an almighty, humorless bore.

Evan Almighty, which turns Steve Carell into a modern-day Noah, might amuse the youngest members of the audience with its wide assortment of animals, but for those of us who would see it for its impressive human cast, it is nothing but a disappointment. Evan wastes the talents of some of the funniest actors around — Carell, Lauren Graham, John Michael Higgins, Molly Shannon, John Goodman. The only actor who gives us a few laughs is Wanda Sykes as Carell's assistant.

This is a spinoff that should simply never have happened. Though Bruce Almighty had amusing moments, and Steve Carell as newsman Evan Baxter nearly stole the movie with his on-air babblefest, that doesn't mean the character deserved his own, lesser (and cringe-inducing) movie. Why can't studios leave well enough alone? The answer, of course, lies with the almighty dollar.

Another bad decision is modifying Baxter's character into someone the audience is meant to like. In Bruce, Baxter's comic appeal was predicated upon his obnoxious, puffed-up newsman persona. Here, he is elected congressman. So he packs up the truck and moves to D.C. Virginia hills, that is. Rural estate, but no swimming pool. He has a supportive wife (Graham) and three cute sons. He's a neatnik and aggressively upwardly mobile. But it's unclear if we're supposed to initially dislike him. He drives a Humvee and hates dogs, so those fall squarely into the "dislikable" column. But he seems to genuinely love his family and wants to serve well as a politician. So, we're meant to like him? He promised in his congressional campaign to "change the world." He's clearly a fool. But by the time he grows a long beard and, at the urging of God (an always appealing Morgan Freeman), builds a gargantuan ark, aided by helpful pairs of beasts, we're supposed to think him wise and cheer him on.

As silly as the premise is, what is most distressing is how this film manages to take an intelligent and droll actor like Carell, dumb him down and render him comedy-free. And, even more galling, is how Evan manages to take someone as unequivocally witty as Jon Stewart (in a few cameos) and make him unfunny. Director Tom Shadyac has the startling ability to extinguish the humor in the funniest people among us.