Year One
Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: October 26th, 2009
Basically it is the tale of two movies.
The first film is the dealing of a modern Jack Black perception of dealing with Cave Man issues, but with the limited intellect that straddles those limits of a Cave Man and a Jack Black
character. In this instance, the character's name is Zed, and Jack, presents that character in a manner that, oddly enough, reminds me of Bob Hope in his "on the road" buddy films playing opposite Bing Crosby. Michael Cera plays Oh; he would be the Bing character, and in the first third of the film he has some funny lines in this situation. If the movie continued a bit from this point in the same vein, it would have been decent, funny picture: 2 3/4 stars.
The problem with this picture is that in continues in another direction - the wrong direction. Once these characters leave the woods, and inter the rest of the unknown world the film completely runs off the rails and there is no salvation. These enterprising cavemen: First meet Cain and Able, then Adam, then miraculously Abraham, Isaac and then the city of Sodom, but no Lot is introduced, just the promise of Yahweh's wrath. Director Harold Ramis compressed most of the Book of Genesis into a few weeks within the lives of Zed and Oh, and even a great comedic giant like Harold Ramis can't pull that off.
Poking fun at the early Jews and assorted Canaanites can make for rich comedy; I get that. It has served Woody Allen and Larry David quite well. It just does not work in this film, and in particular the sodomy jokes in Sodom. A lot of other decent talent: Hank Azara, Oliver Platt, Vinnie Jones and Paul Rudd went to waste making this movie. At 97 minutes of runtime, you may want to conserve your time on this one.
Rated PG13. Released on DVD October 9, 2009.
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