Year One
Posted on October 6, 2009 at 8:00 am
The two-doofus comedy probably goes back to ancient times, so why not set it there? The always-funny Michael Cera and the frequently-funny Jack Black join forces like Hope and Crosby in an only intermittently-funny movie that is just a series of sketches set in ancient days — prehistoric, Biblical, Roman, and Egyptian. Cera plays Oh, a gatherer, and Black is Zed, a hunter. They are pals who are evicted from their stone-age village and wander off, meeting up with Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and the residents of Sodom. In yet another “what was the MPAA thinking” moment, the film has been assigned a PG-13 rating, despite jokes about incest, circumcision, orgies, castration, and ingestion of human waste.
The juxtaposition of modern sensibility and prehistory provides some funny contrasts. Oh and Zed are amazed to see their first wheel and when they ride in their first vehicle they raise their arms as though they were in a roller-coaster, even though it cannot keep up with a guy strolling alongside. And then they get their first carsickness. Some things are eternal — like insecurity with the opposite sex, bullies, and the bad guys having English accents. And it is fun to see a modern perspectives combined with ancient situations.
But more doesn’t work than does. Cain does not just kill Abel; he pounds him — and any potential for humor — into the ground. It isn’t enough that a pagan priest be corrupt and gay; he has to be hairy. The movie is too spotty to be comic and too listless to be heretical. There’s no point to it, just a series of gags — in both senses of the word.
Don’tcha just hate it when writers try too hard, directors have no limits, and actors are given minimal guidance and rely on tried and true schtick?! O those rascally producers – they need someone to help them learn less is more, brevity in wit, and the proper ratio of slapstick to intellectual to emotional humor. O well, I hope the leads get another better vehicle in which to get car sick.
You rated this for “mature high-schooler”. Don’t you really mean “immature but old enough”? 😉
I have this same thought about “adult” films. . .
That’s a good idea, Pam!
I have absloutely no interest in this film. I do not find anything listed as part of the review that would provide any humor. I continue to be disgusted by what is shown in films and what the MPAA continues to and not to allow under certain ratings. For me it will be a definite “skip it.”
Thanks, Tim! I’m glad you feel that the information in my review gave you the information you needed to make a decision that was right for you.
Romans 1 describes many things dealt with in this movie and God calls them “perverse”. To laugh at the very things God hates and calls out as perverse is a dangerous place to live. I wouldn’t want a penny of my money going to support this movie. Laughing at and finding entertainment in these disgusting things is in a way approving of them. One should ask, “Does watching this blasphemy bring Glory to God?” I can’t imagine why anyone would approve of their children viewing this.
Thanks for the comment — as you can see, I do not recommend the movie for any age group and especially not for children. But I do believe God wants us to laugh that honest laughter is one way of declaring God’s glory.