Went to see a pre-release screening of Evan Almighty tonight in philly… yeah, we feel pretty special don’t we… cuz tonight is the first time the film has been shown in its entirety in America. And only to a select few people in select few cities… Everyone else is gonna have to wait till June 22 to see it. OK… big whoop

So anyway, here’s the it’s a great film… good family comedy. This is something that pretty much anyone can get a kick out of. A great chance to take your family to the theater together.

Steve Carell did a good job… he’s just funny to watch. And I loved Wanda Sykes. The lines they gave her came a mile a minute, and she was just hysterical. Very funny stuff.

The story line had great little moral lessons along the way, of course “God” humor thrown in there with Morgan Freeman playing God… I love the way that they make God out to be someone with a sense of humor, but accessible, wise, and someone you can respect and reverence in a way. (not like the goofy George Burns)

I could tell the audience was churched people… just how they laughed at all the God jokes and stuff… the audience was really into it… maybe its because they all felt special being at the screening and were excited about that. But it was cool. It was fun to have a responsive crowd.

I liked the film much much more than Bruce Almighty. – Which ended with Bruce still being snarky, and how it was still so much about him. This film is very much about how you can give of yourself to make a difference in the world. So it never was about Evan, but about what God wanted to do in the world through him (and of course us)

Even though “Evan Almighty” was a little bit predictable, and never went really deep, I still recommend seeing it… the animals were freakin amazing… and the ark was incredible, totally realistic, and just blew me away with how they pulled it all off to look so real. I’m sure there was CG, there had to be… but I didn’t really see it in the entire film… (of course it was my first viewing) the only shot that I was sure was CG, was just this massive wide shot with all the animals getting ready to enter the ark... It just would have been impossible to line the animals up like that.

So its definitely worth seeing. Just cuz you can laugh, and maybe it could spark a conversation about faith. Of course faith in a God you can see, is physically there – and who performs miracles right in front of you… is hardly the same kind of faith that we have, but still.

Evan Almighty IMDB site