Noah Scape

Big-budget, zero-carbon comedy Evan Almighty opens today

Today marks the debut of a movie that is, depending whom you ask, either a shining star in the eco-entertainment pantheon or a crass manifestation of green gone bad. Evan Almighty, with Steve Carell as a latter-day Noah, bills itself as "the first major motion picture comedy to zero out its [carbon] footprint." Its producers have launched a $25 million green marketing campaign, with a website that encourages fans to offset their own emissions, plant trees in the "Almighty Forest" (24,000 and counting), and green their homes and offices. The campaign is sponsored by "organizations that care," from the San Diego Zoo to ... Coca-Cola and Burger King. Ahem. With on-set recycling, bike-riding crew members, a green-carpet premiere, and even an eco-message, the film seems to have earned its bragging rights. But it's also earned heat for being the most expensive comedy ever made, and some greens don't dig the commercialization of their pet cause. Also, it completely sucks. Or so we hear.