Jack Black. In small doses, the man can be hilarious. In a leading man role, I'm still not sold. After watching the pile of horse shit that was "Nacho Libre", I wanted to give up on Mr. Black forever. Seriously, that was one of the most unfunny comedies I have ever seen, right behind any of the "____ Movie" series or "The Love Guru". But after a hilarious turn as Jeff Portnoy in the awesome "Tropic Thunder", my faith renewed. Teaming him up with everyone's favorite awkward geek Michael Cera in the prehistoric comedy "Year One", and I'll admit my interest was piqued.
Unfortunately, Jack Black left me feeling underwhelmed yet again.
The story is simple: Jack Black plays Zed and Cera is Oh, two prehistoric dudes who after a series of events are banned from their tribe and set out to explore the world. They encounter various scenes and events from the Bible and try to rescue the two babes from their tribe that have been sold into slavery to the King of Sodom. The two babes in question (Juno Temple and June Diane Raphael) serve their purpose as eye candy as they aren't given much to work with. Juno Temple is an absolute BABE by the way, and I'm pumped to see more of her in the future.
The script was written by veteran Harold Ramis (of "Ghostbusters" fame) and "The Office" producers/scribes Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. I'm not gonna lie, the flick has some truly laugh out loud funny lines and scenarios. Hank Azaria as the circumcision-happy Abraham was quite a riot, and Oliver Platt stole the fuckin' show as the flaming gay High Priest of Sodom. David Cross is a dependable comic actor and he does enough with the character of Cain, a conniving bastard who also just can't come to admit he killed his brother Abel. And don't forget the cameo by the one and only Bill Hader as the Tribe Shaman...provided the first big laugh of the film and set a pretty high standard from there.
Aside from Judd Apatow being one of the producers, I felt this comedy was a step backwards from more intelligent and witty fare that we have come to expect lately. Comedies like "Pineapple Express", "Superbad", "Knocked Up", hell even the quasi-serious "Funny People"; these new breed of comedies are just laugh a minute yukfests that never slow up. Every line is a clever zinger or one liner and you have to watch multiple times to catch all the laughs. "Year One" is more of your run-of-the-mill comedy, with a joke here, joke there, sight gag, sex joke, poop joke, then ties it up with a corny happy ending. It's kind of a dying breed of comedy, and it almost feel dated, never mind inferior.
The setting was an interesting choice, but Mel Brooks already tread this familiar territory with the much better "The History of the World Part I" way back when. While I enjoyed Michael Cera's performance, he almost seems to be becoming a one trick pony, which if he's not careful, he might go the way of John Heder. I doubt it, because he's far more talented and has better Hollywood connects, but there's only so many times you can play the awkward, sarcastic and subdued geek with no variation. Jack Black is his usual hit or miss self. For every funny random line, he would follow it up with some juvenile, seemingly forced outburst that just falls flat. He is not capable of truly carrying a film himself, I'm sad to say. And speaking of one trick ponies: Christopher Mintz-Plasse, aka McLovin, resurfaces here as Abraham's son Issac. He's got a few choice lines and he can be funny, but I think of him already as the white Urkel. With his voice and appearance, it's gonna be mighty hard for him to rise above that kinda typecasting. But who gives a shit, he's probably rich and gets any piece of tail he wants, more power to him, milk it till it runs dry.
Overall this film isn't terrible but it's painfully average. Don't go outta your way to see it, but if you are bored and happen upon a Red Box, rent this puppy for a buck. You could do much worse with your time and money.
RATING: 2 OUT OF 4
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