Somewhere, Paul Weitz is cackling. The wide-eyed, interlaced-finger corporate synergy he lampooned in searing fashion in In Good Company is on full, unapologetic display on NBC, which is using The Office to pump up star Steve Carell’s burgeoning movie career.

The network re-ran three episodes this evening, but stretched them to a cumulative running time of two hours by padding the night out with interstitial bumpers featuring copious clips from the movie and banter with Carell and other cast members, like Lauren Graham and Wanda Sykes. This tack may work for the film’s opening weekend numbers, but don’t expect word-of-mouth to help this movie out.

Carell exudes a certain nice-guy sympathy, so the natural inclination is to want to go easy on Evan Almighty, but the truth is that there are five times more laughs in the single half-hour “Casino Night” episode of The Office (which Carell penned, incidentally) than the entire running time of Tom Shadyac’s ramshackle (sigh) “comedy of biblical proportions.” It’s that uninspired, though Carell did give me one good laugh with an obviously improvised line — clarifying his bearded appearance by way of explaining that he was cultivating “a Loggins and Messina look” to spice up his love life.