Perhaps ‘Evan’ will be mightier on disc

The idea probably looked great on paper: Do a sequel to the popular 2003 Jim Carrey comedy “Bruce Almighty” about a TV news reporter who is visited by a new-wavish God (Morgan Freeman), cast funnyman Steve Carell, who played Evan, the anchorman whom Bruce despised, bring back Freeman and beef up the budget to $175 million. The result, “Evan Almighty,” debuting Tuesday on DVD, is less than a “divine” comedy. Though Carell manages to get laughs -- this time around, Evan has been elected to Congress and moves with his family to Washington, D.C. -- “Evan Almighty” was a critical and financial disappointment -- the negative reviews outweighed the positive 3 to 1, and the comedy earned $300 million less internationally than “Bruce.”

But the film certainly didn’t hurt the career arc of Carell, who just returned for his fourth season on NBC’s “The Office”; his latest feature, the romantic comedy “Dan in Real Life,” is scheduled for release Oct. 26; and he just finished the big-screen version of “Get Smart.”

--

Van Sant returns to his debut film

Iconoclastic film director Gus Van Sant (“My Own Private Idaho,” “Good Will Hunting”) made his feature debut with 1985’s “Mala Noche” (Bad Night), which arrives Tuesday in a special edition from Criterion.

Produced for a threadbare $25,000 and based on the autobiographical novella by Oregon poet Walt Curtis, the film revolves around a young man (Tim Streeter) who works at a convenience store in the seedier part of Portland -- Van Sant’s hometown. Curtis falls head over heels for a handsome Latino boy (Doug Cooeyate) who is in this country illegally with his friend and doesn’t speak English. The extras on the DVD includes a new interview with Van Sant, who also supervised and approved the restored, high-definition digital transfer of the black-and-white film, a documentary on Curtis, a storyboard gallery and the original trailer edited by Van Sant.

--

-- Susan King