KEY POINTS:
Herald Rating: *
Here's the thing: the phrase "Acts of Random Kindness" can be reduced to the initials ARK, but it still doesn't make sense.
That's the last inanity in this embarrassing attempt to replicate the success of the 2003 Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty. The first one is in the first shot. Evan Baxter (Carell) is signing off as a news anchorman to start work, the very next day, in the congressman's job to which he has been elected. Even in the land of the First Amendment, people don't run for office while reporting on the campaign. Dumb stuff like this shows up once a minute in the rest of the film. My pen ran out of ink.
Bruce Almighty was a sentimental fable in which Carrey played a frustrated TV reporter to whom God (Freeman) gives short-term omnipotence so he can learn an Important Life Lesson. Carell's Baxter, Bruce's sleazy nemesis in that film, is this one's hero: he starts as a prematurely cynical congressman, happy to slip under the wing of his venial senior colleague Chuck Long (Goodman), even at the price of disappointing his family. Then along comes the Big Man with instructions that Evan needs to build an ark. This is not a misprint. It gets much, much worse.
To list the film's faults would be to give it far more attention than it deserves. Suffice it to say, it is as about as funny as herpes - most of the jokes involve animals pooping on people's suits - and crassly, heavy-handedly sentimental. Carell was excellent in The 40 Year Old Virgin and the David Brent equivalent in the American version of The Office, and showed his versatility as the depressive Proust scholar in Little Miss Sunshine, but this film makes Jim Carrey look Chaplinesque. The always enjoyable Freeman doesn't stain his reputation because, his role being what it is, he can maintain a safe distance from the action. But the most expensive comedy in history - most of the money was spent on bad CGI - is a $250 million turkey.
Cast: Steve Carell, John Goodman, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham Director: Tom Shadyac Running time: 95 mins Rating: PG, contains coarse language Screening: SkyCity, Hoyts Verdict: The most expensive comedy in history is a cringeworthy attempt to mimic the Bruce Almighty formula and as funny as herpes
