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It wasn’t my first choice of movies to see that night. I’d have much preferred The Hangover or Drag Me to Hell. But my kids were with me, and they got to choose. They dragged me to Year One.
Two buddies from a primitive tribe (played by Jack Black and Michael Cera) are expelled for eating forbidden fruit and burning a thatched hut. Somehow they trek, mostly on foot, from what seems to be North American forest (there’s a cougar) to the desert of what is now Israel. Along the way they meet Adam’s sons, Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd), just in time to see the fratricide in progress. The travelers move along, get sold into slavery, and become foot soldiers in the sinful town of Sodom. Biblical hijinks ensue.
Based on the previews, I expected something a little crude, a little stupid, but kind of funny. For once, the previews were accurate. But, at the risk of sounding like the Holy of Holies, the crudeness and stupidity swamped the scanty laughs. I thought I knew bathroom humor, but this was the bathroom, sewer system, and wastewater treatment plant combined.
The pacing seems sluggish. Scenes begin and end in random locations, without a lot of continuity, and most of the dialogue seems made up on the spot. I was stunned to read that Harold Ramis, the director of the venerable Groundhog Day and other classics, directed this one and co-wrote the script. Say it ain’t so, Harold.
I can see what Ramis was trying to do here: sort of a new take on Monty Python’s Life of Brian, or Mel Brooks’s History of the World, Part I. And it’s not all bad. There is a strange and interesting chemistry between Black and Cera, and I did laugh a genuine laugh at least once. Ultimately, though, as the film limps to its bizarre conclusion, you think, It could have been so much better. And, my god, the crudity.
There’s talk of a sequel, a Year Two, perhaps. I say go for it. It has to be better than Year One.
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