YEAR ONE is so inoffensively silly that it's hard to criticise. The film has no pretensions to high art or even good comedy. It's content to just stand there making farting noises and hope that we giggle as much as director Harold Ramis did when he wrote them.
YEAR ONE makes Ramis' previous writing and directing credits ("Groundhog Day," "Stripes'" Caddyshack" to name just a few) look like "Citizen Kane." It's a motley collection of schoolboy jokes about early history acted out by Jack Black and Michael Cera. They're a couple of just out of the caves cavemen who are proficient at neither hunting nor gathering and are therefore useless to their tribe who cast out the pair into the wilderness.
Their random roaming brings them into contact with a random collection of biblical characters and events including Cain and Abel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham, and the ancient Romans.
The most impressive aspect of this whole project is Jack Black's admirable restraint. The script offers him countless opportunities to act his loincloth off yet he masterfully (and uncharacteristically) resists them all turning in an understated performance which allows the comedy to breath.
Michael Cera ("Juno", "Superbad") stakes another claim to be the juvenile Woody Allen of the 21st century (for his nerdish klutzy inability to act like a man around women rather than for the sophistication of his humour) while Christopher Mintz-Plasse who was completely unforgettable as McLovin in "Superbad" is completely wasted in a bit part that wouldn't even tax the meagre talents of Corey Feldman.
You won't feel cheated if you pay $5 to see this film. Anything more and you may seriously consider seeing the manager to ask for your money back.
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