Movie Preview: Evan Almighty

Fans of 2003's Bruce Almighty may now rejoice: Evan Almighty, starring The Office's Steve Carell, hits theaters on June 22. Carell is back as news anchorman-turned-politician Evan Baxter. Having been recently elected to Congress, Evan uproots his family from their home in Buffalo and settles in northern Virginia. There, Evan has an encounter with God (Morgan Freeman), who sets him the task of building an ark. Evan pragmatically disbelieves, but one divine coincidence after another prompts him to obey God's call.

Bruce Almighty director Tom Shadyac gets behind the camera once again and leads Steve Carell and a cast including Laura Graham and John Goodman. The film also stars John Michael Higgins, Jimmy Bennett, Wanda Sykes and Jonah Hill.

I enjoyed the previous film, and, being a huge Steve Carell fan (if you haven't seen every episode of The Office, go out immediately and buy the DVDs), the film intrigued me. The trailer presents it as a funny, family-friendly movie, but with Steve Carell's acting abilities, the PG-rating shouldn't turn anyone away.

It's interesting to note that the film had an enormous budget-some rumors put the total at nearly $200 million. Director Shadyac said most of that money (whatever wasn't spent on cast paychecks) was divvied up between the many and exotic animals used in the film and the construction of the enormous Ark. But more than the animals and the enormous set pieces, Evan Almighty is a Biblical parable about trust. If all goes as Shadyac has planned, Evan's journey from disbeliever to faithful ark-builder will keep us riveted until the end.