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Evan Almighty
[HD DVD] R0 - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (1st January 2008). |
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The Film
 "Bruce Almighty" (2003) was a sizeable enough hit to warrant a sequel; the only problem was that the original stars, Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston were not interested in reprising their roles. The script was eventually sold to Sony attracting high bids from studios including Universal. Director Tom Shadyac convinced Sony to partner with Universal to rework the script into a direct sequel to "Bruce Almighty". But by the time rewrites were submitted by Steve Oedekerk, Carrey had officially dropped out of the production. Not letting their hard work go to waist the film was re-worked yet again featuring the supporting character Evan played by Steve Carell in "Bruce Almighty", Carell's profile had risen considerably due to break out roles in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" (2004), his incredibly successful and highly profitable comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005) and his run on the highly rated sitcom "The Office" (2005-Present). Carell was a star and capable of filling the leading man shoes, thus "Evan Almighty" was born. As far as comedy's go the premise was simple and the themes universal, however the execution would prove ambitious. The initial budget was approximately $140 million, which led to it becoming the most expensive comedy produced, however the budget continued to escalate to around $175 million due to over-ambitious set construction on location, the use of costly special effects for the film's climax as well as problems incurred while shooting with animals and added to that was the marketing of the film which ballooned the estimated budget to around the $200 million mark. With good reason the continually rising budget scared Sony clean off the project and handed it over entirely to Universal who ended up taking all the risk. And it seems that Sony were right to back away, as the star power of both Carell and Morgan Freeman along with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign didn't pay off. The film opened on a whopping 5,200 screens in 3,604 theaters but only managed a disappointing $31million opening weekend. Officially the film has been recognized as a giant flop, as the opening was less than half of "Bruce Almighty's" $68 million weekend. I suppose the mixed reviews didn't help either (leaning more towards the bad, with a 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). News anchor Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) is set for a new beginning, having been elected to Congress Evan moves his family to Virginia onto bigger and better things. Just when things are beginning to go his way, Evan is called by the Almighty, God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark and warns of a flood. Skeptical at first eventually Evan puts off his Congressional duties to do God's bidding even though to most people he appears to be going insane, long beard and gown included. In a twisted way I was eager to blast this film entirely, a film that bombed so badly must be crap? However that wasn't really the case, the film wasn't all that bad. It was mediocre but not terrible and that's about the best way to describe it. Steve Carell's known for his ad-libbed comedy, however for this film he adds virtually nothing new to the table, it's the same brand of comedy which works so well on "The Office" but for this film it just seems tired and uninspired, perhaps the broad scale of the film should have warranted an equally audacious comedic performance instead of the 'same-old-same-old' from Carell? I also found that the comedy was few and far between and the film seemed to limp forward for a long time before anything interesting happened with the occasional humorous moment usually revolving around the animals that seem to steal most of the show. The lamest moments included the first stages of the ark building in a virtually laugh-free montage sequence featuring Carell continually hurting himself and yelling out childish quips such as "I have a boo-boo"...it really does feel like a very mediocre series of sketches set amid a grand scope of set design and special effects, which by the way were amazing. The Ark set is a grand spectacle; built full scale in a Virginia housing development the set towers in stature and the flood effects created by ILM are equally impressive. You can tell that a lot of time and money was invested in these two elements of the film; if only it was invested in the script then it wouldn't have turned out so flat. Speaking of the script there are many moment lined within it that reek of easy plot devices used to continue the momentum without a second thought as to whether they actually make sense. The flood for example only really put a new housing development in danger yet every animal on Earth times two needed to be saved...I guess the logic was the bigger the challenge our hero undertakes the bigger the laughs (if only that were true). Additionally the religious aspects aren't too heavy handed; they lightly make up the fabric of the film without seeming too preachy. And even though the filmmakers were very conscious of reducing their carbon footprint while making this film the film's overall 'green' theme seems to be a passing thought considering humanity's footprint on earth and the devastation that it can cause. It's easy to see where all that money went; the question is 'was it a good investment?' The short answer is 'no'. While it's possible this film may see some more revenue from DVD and HD DVD sales and rentals, I can't help but think it'll take a long time to break even considering there are far better comedies out there.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, this high-definition widescreen transfer is presented in 1080p 24/fps and has been created using VC-1 compression. Much like the DVD release this is a solid effort. The image is crisp and sharp, fine detail is clearly visible and adds texture to the overall film. Colors especially look bold and vibrant, the HD image shows off the cinematography quite well with the wide frame capturing the clear blue skies and locations and every detail of the film's massive set, the ark. Additionally skin tones appear natural, black levels are solid with consistent shadow detail throughout. Being a film recently released the print itself is flawlessly clean, I spotted no dirt or major compression flaws, no edge-enhancement of any kind and grain was virtually non-existent. Overall it's a terrific HD transfer.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included on this release (on the HD side of the disc), they include English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround, a French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround track as well as an English Descriptive Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English 5.1 track. It seems that Universal missed an opportunity to include a TrueHD audio track but instead went for the lesser Dolby Digital Plus option. While it's a fairly good track a film like this with plenty of effects and score elements could have benefited greatly with an HD audio track. In any case the dialogue is clear and distortion free and the track exhibits some fine aggressive sound during the film's more grand sequences like the flood. It was however much like the standard Dolby track on the DVD release in the sense that for the most part it was front heavy. Ambient sound however was richer in this mix, which is a nice bonus. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and French.
Extras
Universal Pictures has included all of the extras found on the DVD release including a series of deleted scenes, outtakes, eight featurettes, a promo clip, a video thank you, an interactive game and a series of bonus trailers, also featured are some HD exclusive extras as part of the U-Control interactive function on this disc which includes a picture-in-picture commentary, an interactive feature, a trivia track and some web-enable features. Below is a closer look at these supplements. Since this is a combo-disc featuring a DVD on one side and an HD DVD on the other, extras on the HD side will be marked with an *, anything without that means it's on both side unless noted. First up we've got a picture-in-picture commentary*. This one of the coolest aspects of HD DVD, as it allows you to experience the film with a feature that unlocks video vignettes featuring the key cast and crew talking about the film, the scenes and features behind-the-scenes footage. In effect this operates much like an audio commentary only featuring footage from the production and interviews with the participant and covers almost all aspects of the production. This is a worthy addition to this disc as it features some neat videos selected when the icon appears during the film. Next we've got "Ark Building for Dummies"* an interactive feature which allows you to navigate through the book on how to build your own Ark. The pages are filled with instructions taken right out the film. It's like you can read through the film prop. Although it's a nest feature I got bored of it relatively quickly. Following that is "Get on Board"* which is a pop-up trivia track that offers up information about the animals and how we can help keep the Earth green in this eco-friendly feature. There is also a deleted scenes reel which runs for 14 minutes 32 seconds and include a brief intro by Carell, the scenes included are Evan justifying the purchase of a Hummer, the Baxter family exploring their new home, Evan selects his toilet to be installed and admires all the new things about his house. Also included is footage of Joan (Lauren Graham) putting the kids to bed, Evan doing his morning prep of shaving and plucking, a maintenance man gets the Baxter's address wrong and first at the office with executive assistant Rita (Wanda Sykes), Evan tries to apologies to his kids about cancelling the hiking trip, Evan faces off with another driver, Marty (John Michael Higgins) is concerned Evan hasn't shown up to congressional meetings, the kids organize the tools and more building montage footage and Evan saves a dog right before the flood hits. Next up are some outtakes presented in a reel that runs for 2 minutes 45 seconds, you'll find the usual stuff here, flubbed lines, missed cues and the cast laughing in takes and breaking a smile after some improved moments. There's nothing overly funny but you'll probably crack a smile. Following that is the first in a series of featurettes, "The Ark-itects of Noah's Ark" runs for 6 minutes 48 seconds and takes us through the monumental task in researching, designing and building the real life scale Ark on location in Virginia. The cast and crew comment on the amazing structure and being able to film on the set. Next is "Becoming Noah" a featurette that runs for 6 minutes 25 seconds and explores the realistic hair make-up designed and applied to Carell to make him look more like Noah through various stages of growth. The process takes hours to apply and the make-up crew created special wigs and beards for the production. "Steve Carell Unscripted" is a short featurette that runs for 3 minutes 13 seconds and basically features Carell acting silly on set, I'm not sure why this warranted it's own extras as the footage could have been included in the outtakes section relatively easily. The next featurette is entitled "Animals on Set Two by Two" which runs for 12 minutes 50 seconds. This clip takes a closer look at the various animals that were brought onto the set and the extensive training process. The production dealt with hundreds of animals used during the filming and also takes a look at how they managed to intermix predatory animals with prey in the same frame using blue screens to composite the final shots. Next is "The Almighty Green Set", a featurette that runs for 5 minutes 27 seconds and details how the production was eco-friendly, the cast and crew traveled on bicycles, the sets were recycled and the wood was donated to habitat for humanity, the purpose was to reduce the carbon footprint left by the production. "It's Easy being Green" is a short featurette that runs for 4 minutes 40 seconds as the cast and crew provide tips for how you can be eco-friendly and reduce emitions by simple steps you can do around the home. "Acts of Random Kindness" is a featurette which runs for 1 minute 47 seconds as the key cast and crew share their favorite acts of random kindness witnessed, have had done to them or that they have done. The final featurette is "A Flood of Visual Effects" which runs for 7 minutes 10 seconds and takes a look at the flood effects created by ILM and how they managed to create realistic water effects as well as the work Rhythm and Hues did with the CGI animals and creating many of them for the Ark. Also on the disc is "Casting Call: Serengeti" a promo clip that runs for 2 minutes 52 seconds and is a humorous look at casting the animals in Africa where the casting director auditions a few beasts for the production. A brief video clip follows entitled "The Almighty Forest" (only on the DVD side) which runs for 6 minutes and is a thank you for all the people that planted a tree in the Almighty forest. For the kids there's "Animal Round-up" (only on the DVD side) an interactive game where you use your remote to pair up animals and answer questions to fill the ark, for every wrong answer given the floor water rises. Another interactive feature is "Animal Wrangler"* which features photos of the various types of animals that appear in the film, by selecting one you reveal some facts about each one. As part of the HDI features we've got some web-enabled extras* that include: - Access to Universal's online high-def portal. - Create bookmarks with MyScenes. - Access to message boards - Download additional Universal trailers - Access to the U-shop online store. Rounding out the extras are a collection of start-up bonus trailers (only on the DVD side) for: - "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie" which runs for 1 minute. - "Bring It On: In It To Win It" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "The Office Seasons 1-3" which runs for 1 minute 5 seconds. - "HD DVD" promo spot which runs for 1 minute 2 seconds.
Overall
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