PG 95mins

This film was never going to be of Biblical proportions. The sequel to Bruce Almighty, in which Jim Carey plays God for a day, had a hard act to follow and so did Steve Carell in the lead role.

As Evan concentrates on his new job as congressman rather than building an ark for God, biblical in-jokes come with all the subtlety of a plague of locusts.

But the film’s simplistic theological message - God gives us opportunities not answers - is rendered as fantastical as the action. Elephants and giraffes helping to build the ark are surely a deviation from the original text in Genesis.

The film has been a hit with US Christian audiences, but when it opens on Friday in the UK it may be met with less of a deluge of praise. It's caused controversy elsewhere in the world with calls for it to be banned in Malaysia for being un-Islamic in its depiction of God. Played by the aging Morgan Freeman, the deity turns up unexpectedly throughout, as he did to Bruce. But without the benefit of novelty, the gag falls a little flat.

This is a fun film for the holidays but there’s no danger it will out shine its predecessors.