Comedic Cavemen

What happens when you tell people there’s no script, just a general plot, and let the cameras roll? Well, it’ll probably end up something like “Year One.”
“Year One” is a story about two cavemen who go in search of their destiny and discover many adventures along the way. Written and directed by Harold Ramis (of “Ghostbusters” fame), this movie seems like an extreme parody of the Bible and the movie “10,000 B.C.” all rolled into one. And it works all right.
Most of the scenes revolve around Black and Cera’s exchanges, which basically consist of Black’s logical insanity and Cera’s subtle doses of reality. Many of the jokes are predictable, such as beating a woman in the tribe with a stick like a caveman, or references to boners, but they work because of the delivery of the actors.

On paper, I’m sure the movie sounded funny, but it comes off as a poor man’s “Monty Python’s, The Life of Bryan” or Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part I.”

Produced by Judd Apatow, “Year One” could be considered the one that was phoned in. It lacked a lot of the heart that “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” had, the intelligence of “Knocked Up” and the humor of “Superbad.”

Other comedians such as Paul Rudd, David Cross and Hank Azaria make cameos and are arguably the best part of the film. Some of the lines that come out of Azaria’s mouth are predictable like the rest of the movie but almost make you do a spit take.
Ultimately, all the cameos don’t add to the movie – even McLovin doesn’t help this one.

Though there are few funny moments, it’s mostly just a bunch of village idiots reminding us that just because you’ve made a few classically funny movies, not all of them will be as evolved.