Year One

If our ancestors truly were this inept and stupid, none of us would be here today.

Jack Black stars as Zed – a villager who is an incompetent hunter, which doesn’t help him impress the woman of his dreams, Maya (June Diane Raphael). Meanwhile, his best buddy, Oh (Michael Cera), is a 90-pound gatherer weakling who longs for Eema (Juno Temple). The two commiserate over their troubles as the village outcastes, but it gets much worse when Zed breaks one of the most important rules, which causes the village leaders to evict him and his pal Oh.

As they set off to find a new home, what adventures will they find?

Year One is a weak comedy that overly relies on jokes from the Unholy Trinity of P - Penises, Poop and Pee Pee. When in doubt, writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, as well as writer/director Harold Ramis, go for the gross out potty humor in the most unimaginative and painful ways possible. These sight gags only make you gag and feel so drawn out and icky that you want to scrub your eyeballs clean. Saddest of all, our writers could have created a wild, crazy adventuresome film, much like Superbad or The Hangover, but don’t provide enough supporting characters and scenarios to keep us interested.

Some of this also lies at the feet of Ramis as director. Year One has a plodding pace without enough climaxes and zip, which leads to a flat movie. It doesn’t have enough energy to keep the audience excited, or awake (the lack of laughter might also help you catch a few winks). This is a movie pointlessly roaming along without a clear vision or direction or any wit.

Without much material to support them, Black and Cera have to rely on their typical, easily recognizable personalities and performances, instead of something original, to draw some sort of laughs out of the crowd. Black is back to mugging and acting silly, instead of delivering funny lines. Cera is acting like the shy, ironic, uncomfortable kid with the sardonic reactions to what is happening around him. We have seen it before, and they can make us laugh from time to time with the old standbys, but it’s not special.

Worst of all, and I know I might come off like a fuddy duddy complaining about this, but Stupinsky, Ramis and Eisenberg are mixing together characters and eras that don’t go together. At first, Zed, Oh and their fellow villagers appear to be cavemen or some rudimentary future generation of cavemen. Then, they are interacting with biblical figures who came much later, and live in a much more advanced society. Then, other figures are supposed to be from the beginning of time. Maybe that won’t bother someone who has zero knowledge of history, but 99 out of 100 people will be smart enough to notice the difference.

I hope we don’t get a Year Two.

Year One is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.