Year One

Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Jack Black, Micahel Cera, Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria
Releasing in cinemas: 18 June 2009
Rated: M

One for the teens

Another typical Jack Black vehicle which will have the greatest appeal to his teenage fans, Year One is directed and co-written by long serving Harold Ramis remembered for his more inspired work Ghost Busters and Caddyshack. Starting in the era of Neanderthal hunter gatherers, it meanders through a series of sketches of Biblical proportions from Cain and Abel to the ill fated city of Sodom, with a touch of Abraham and Life of Brian in between. It might even owe a small favour to Raquel Welch and her One Million Years BC.

In a Stone Age village in the middle of nowhere layabout Zed (Jack Black) imagines he’s a great hunter. His faithful sidekick Oh (Michael Cera) an ineffectual gatherer warns him about eating the forbidden apple of knowledge, which Zed immediately proceeds to consume; resulting in Zed believing he’s the Chosen One and setting off on a journey to enlightenment with his friend in tow. The tribe delighted to be rid of them both. There follows a series of encounters with the weird and wonderful from the Bible.

Hollywood seems determined to send us back to prehistoric time with unremarkable comedies in keeping with Land of the Lost which somehow just don’t make the grade. While Jack Black tries hard to bring laughs mostly the humour is weak, little better than stand up routines. Romping around in animal skins Black and Micheal Cera sporting a girlie wig make a disastrous pair of cavemen. Although Jack’s supporters may disagree Michael Cera (Juno) is the more sympathetic character in this adventure despite the crazy hair.

Black with his cheerfully inept brand of schoolboy body function humour, clearly enjoys the ride with lascivious grins at camera. Jokes abound in farts, boners, circumcision and the scatological. His career has been uneven, from the successful High Fidelity he stumbled through comedies of variable quality, although some reprieve came with Tropic Thunder.

Others in the cast include Hank Azaria’s Abraham, providing another over the top performance he did so well in Night at the Museum II. Oliver Platt (Frost/Nixon) as Sodom’s nefarious high priest gives an equally exaggerated reading which may not add to his prestige. David Cross (I’m Not There) manages some laughs as the madly murderous Cain. Eye appeal catered for by June Diane Raphael (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Juno Temple (Wild Child) and Olivia Wilde. Our own Gia Carides shows up as Sodom’s Queen.

Despite effort to revive his long career Harold Ramis hasn’t put enough bang for the buck in the material to be up with Groundhog Day. There’s a scattering of funny lines, some genuinely funny slapstick although the lumbering ‘chariot race’ is not a good example. While Black and Cera are given contemporary lines to utter, the Biblical characters sound like mouthing Shakespeare under the influence.

With whiffs of Life of Brian at various time, it’s rather sad to comment Year One has nothing of that picture’s brilliance. The dubious jokes and slapstick don’t rise above the level of nonsense. Strictly aimed at teens who'll get the most fun from the ribald humour.

It would be mean spirited to say Year One is devoid of laughs, there are quite funny moments even for a case hardened reviewer, simply not enough to make it shine. Yet overall I found Year One more entertaining than Land of the Lost; which regrettably is not saying much.

John Bale

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