Year One

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: B-

For an idea that’s been 30 or more years in the making, Harold Ramis’ newest directorial effort, Year One still doesn’t feel fully baked. Sure you have Jack Black and Michael Cera playing the same basic characters they’ve honed throughout their careers, you have sight gags galore and a canvas that is theoretically as wide as history itself, and you have Olivia Wilde, Maxim’s hottest woman of 2008, but it never really manages to come together into a genuine comedy classic. For every hilarious line, there’s a fart joke, and for every clever innuendo, there’s some gratuitous gross-out humor. The appeasing-all-viewers attitude means that the funny is spread thin depending on your preference, and its rare that all the people in the theater are laughing at once.

The set up is simple. It’s ancient times, the legends we have all learned are actually happening (all in a surprisingly short span of time) and they aren’t exactly like you pictured them. Cain and Abel, The Tree of Knowledge, Abraham and Isaac, and The City of Sodom are all squeezed into the film alongside many more modern references. If there is one fault in setting the movie in a timeframe with such a large and pantheon of jokes waiting to happen (excluding Monty Python’s excellent Life of Brian) it’s that the film tends to wallow in the simpler set ups, the obvious gags, and never gets beyond the surface of the subject matter. It’s not the kind of movie that will spawn punch lines, shed light on little insecurities, or make your eyes tear up from laughing. The few times it comes close to such epiphanies are the moments where the movie works the best and shines brightest. The problem is that such moments are a little too spaced out, and actually take a while to start kicking in.

Jack Black is, well, Jack Black. Like Will Ferrell, he has a very distinct comedic style, and those who enjoy his humor will enjoy his work here as well. I happen to like both Black and Cera, so having two protagonists I don’t mind watching for two hours is definitely an upside to sitting through the whole film. That being said, the supporting cast really steals the show on this one, and Hank Azaria, Oliver Platt, and David Cross each manage to chew on whole sequences all by themselves, so well in fact that I’d be remiss if I spoiled their appearances here. Bill Hader also has a cameo early on, but I’m guessing most people won’t know that it’s him since he’s wearing a lot of makeup.

The production design is probably the most impressive part of the movie, and they clearly spared no expense with the construction of their massive town. Everything feels authentic, or as authentic as Hollywood has ever made the time period look, and the big budget grandeur clashes hilariously with our undersized heroes. Even the fire pit where virgins are thrown ...