YEAR ONE: PREHISTORIC PUNCHLINES
June 22nd 2009 09:08
Jack Black as Zed and Michael Cera as Oh in Year One.
Looking at the poster or watching the preview of Year One, it’s not immediately obvious that it’s a Harold Ramis film, which is strange when you consider the screenwriter and director had a major hand in some of the greatest comedies of the last 30 years. Animal House, Meatballs, Stripes, Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Analyse This: Ramis was involved with all of them, so to say that his new film should have his name plastered all over the advertising is perhaps an understatement.
Of course, Ramis by all accounts is an unassuming sort and steers clear of self-aggrandizement. But when I found out that Year One was co written and directed by the former Ghostbuster my expectations suddenly doubled, which turned out to be unfortunate, because this ain’t no Groundhog Day – it’s not even an Armed and Dangerous.
Year One tells the tale of Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), two distinctly terrible hunter-gatherers banished from their primitive village after Zed claims to have been chosen by God. Zed’s not really sure what he’s been chosen for, but with their kinsman not wanting them he and Oh set out into the unknown countryside in search of their destiny. Along the way they meet Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd), Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and a whole host of other weird characters, before finally managing to run down their providence in the opulent and forbidden city of Sodom.
It’s a classic setup, reminiscent of The Life of Brian and History of the World Part I, and in the hands of Ramis you would put good money on Year One being highly entertaining. But when Jack Black is eating Bison dung about 20 minutes into the film, you know things aren’t going well.
And coprophagia jokes are just the start in a flick that sets out to parody and satirise many of the tales of the Old Testament, but chickens out about a third of the way through, perhaps when Ramis plus co-writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky remembered the power the religious right wields with regards to the arts in the United States.
The result is a script so scattershot the writers might as well have tied the ream of paper to a clothesline and just flicked ink at the pages. Jokes are awkwardly set up and then come tumbling down, shackled to their own lead-weighted payoffs, while a bazillion different characters are tried on for size, each one making a ham fisted attempt at milking some laughs from a disinterested audience before filing back off the screen.
Through it all, Black and Cera work their trademark shticks, struggling to cobble something funny from Year One’s disparate parts, and just occasionally proving successful. In this regard they are backed up by Oliver Platt as a salacious high priest and Hank Azaria as Abraham, who proves to be the single greatest aspect of entire film.
Zed and Oh meet Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Abraham (the rather awesome Hank Azaria).
Year One proves to be such a disappointing feature that you leave the theatre wondering how it ever got made in the first place. There’s so much that could have been done better with the film, and one can’t help but lay the blame at the feet of Ramis; he conceptualised, co-wrote and directed, and he’s worth so much more than this. Maybe it’s a good thing then that his name isn’t on the poster.
Check out the trailer for Year One below:
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Comment by MVD
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
And MVD - I think John Candy fits in there nicely too!
Black has yet to produce a comparable doubleheader to contend with Uncle Buck and Planes Trains and Automobiles! (Well, School of Rock was a possible first leg)
Comment by Waysouth
Romantic Writer
Given To Gaming
Waysouth
Spanish Honduras
I've had several moments when I had to re-watch a Jack Black (or Michael Cera film, the eternally replayed Superbad was on Starzz last month), and they get funnier . . .
Jack is an aqcuired taste. Nacho Libre . . .School of Rock. and Superbad gets funnier every time. I think it is a result of the whole "fart joke" syndrome. Once you get past the toilet schtick and stop getting offended, some of the jokes get pretty funny.
that said, sounds like bad news on Year one
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
But Don DeLuise: Now there's talent!
Dave - if access to heaven was based on genius, Ramis could see out his days making tripe like this and he'd still have enough gold to get him past Saint Peter. John Candy indeed BTW.
Waysouth - thanks for reading. I kind of think of Black as more of an acquired distaste: He starts out funny, but after four or five movies of the same thing he really starts to give you the sh*ts. Cera is funny, no doubt, but he's still just George Michael from Arrested Development. But if you like either of them I'd steer clear of this, lest you want to come out of it sharpening a knife for the talent you love.
Comment by Kynaston
Aliterati
Kynaston Tales
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by The wonderful Peter Yang
The wonderful Peter Yang's Variety blog
Power Ranger Online
Comedy TV Online
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight