Year One

When you first hear about the bible era comedy from former Ghostbuster turned director Harold Ramis, you'd think it has the makings of a comedy goldmine. Conceived as a sort of Superbad meets History of the World Part I, I was hoping for laughs in the vein of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Unfortunately, Year One slides by as a merely passable parody of Roland Emmerich's prehistoric disasterpiece 10,000 B.C. which was funny enough on its own.

Jack Black and Michael Cera play opposing cavemen versions of their type-cast character models and the two bumbling cro-mags proceed to Mr. Magoo their way through the Genesis portions of the Old Testament. While the "greatest story ever told" is indeed overflowing with opportune parody, Year One takes the low road and equates everything down to genital and poop humor. Unfortunately, the laughs that aren't cheap aren't frequent enough to maintain interest for the duration of this film's 90 minutes. Also, it's painfully obvious that much of the adhesive humor was left on the cutting room floor to garner a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. Perhaps an unrated DVD will work better, but I wouldn't put money on it.

The guest stars shine a dim light on much of the latter half. Paul Rudd is criminally underused as Abel and David Cross's Cain quickly loses his charm after the inevitable fratricide occurs (spoiler alert?) Harold Ramis appears himself as Adam, but doesn't offer much beyond a cursory "Hey, look who it is!" Hank Azaria and Superbad's own McLovin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Yeah, I'm tired of the while McLovin shtik too...) show up as Abraham and Isaac and Oliver Platt arrives toward the beginning of the 3rd act to encompass the world's first gay joke.

It's not that Year One isn't kind of funny. Though, that's the problem. It's only KIND OF funny. Like so many Saturday Night Live skits, it begins strong and peters out somewhere in the middle of the second act. The cinematography is relatively stale, mostly consisting of close up shots making up the dialog, presumed to splice out R-rated quips or off color improvs. This is particularly upsetting considering Ramis has put out quality material, and fairly recently to boot. Not only was he responsible for the Bill Murray vehicle Groundhog Day, but 2005's overshadowed and under appreciated dark comedy The Ice Harvest with John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Platt and Randy Quaid. With those projects in mind, Year One just comes across as a lazy attempt at comedy.

At the end of the day, Year One is worth a rental. There are laughs to be had, but the pause button will come in very handy on this one. Though, in this economy ten bucks a ticket is just too much to see Jack Black eat poop and Michael Cera pee on himself.