REVIEW: 'Year' toils under reign of potty jokes

Actor/director Harold Ramis is no Mel Brooks, though he tries in this hit-and-miss comedy that may have some wondering if we've seen it all before ("History of the World Part I" anyone?).

Packed full of funny actors and shot on convincing locations rather than the usual Los Angeles back lots, "Year One" has a lot going for it, but in the end simply prefers juvenilia over cleverness.

The film may be called "Year One," but it's about a couple of zeroes, the appropriately named Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), a pair of incompetent hunter/gatherers who get kicked out of their primitive village and embark on an incredible journey through the ancient world.

When their village is sacked and their women sold into slavery, it is up to Zed and Oh to find it within themselves to be the heroes they are in their own minds.

Ramis, who started out strong in the 1980s with "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation," and made the brilliant "Groundhog Day" in the early '90s, has lost his comedic way.

His successive films have mostly all been duds.

His sense of humor is old-fashioned and anachronistic. He lacks a modern, more sophisticated comic voice.

Not that there aren't others trapped in the same regrettable paradigm, but Ramis' answer to weak spots in his script (and there are many) is to simply insert scatological humor.

It doesn't help that the film starts to resemble something like a story just as the credits begin to role.

To Ramis' credit, he's assembled a who's who of modern comedians (many unrecognizable beneath their makeup), headlined by the very funny Black and Cera.

Black and Cera are like Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Ralph and Ed. Their contradictory physicality is matched by their divergent personalities, which, for the most part, play off each other well.

Other actors include "Arrested Development's" David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Oliver Platt (doing an effeminate imitation of "Family Guy's" Stewie) and Hank Azaria (channeling George C. Scott in "Patton").

Much of "Year One's" humor comes from the fact that while everyone around them speaks in King James English, Zed and Oh's parlance is indistinguishable from that of 2009's teenagers. That cheeky idiom, in the Stone Age setting, is itself humorous.

"Year One" mixes and matches its mythology, robbing liberally from prehistory folklore, none more so than the Bible (and 1950s religious-themed films).

As the odd couple make their way on their journey, they encounter the Garden of Eden, a quarreling Cain and Able, Abraham poised to sacrifice Isaac, and the debauched Sodom and Gomorrah. While an advanced degree in biblical epistemology isn't necessary, an appreciation of ancient history and lore certainly helps with some of the jokes.

Ramis also includes a bit of serious commentary, disguised, of course, as jokes.

He swipes at religion, particularly Christianity, throughout the film, poking fun at some of its more ridiculous, low-hanging fruit - while also needling a few of the greater theological tenets. But it's hardly going to change anyone's mind.

In the final analysis, and despite the presence of Jack Black and Michael Cera, "Year One" is little more than "Religulous" with fart jokes.

YEAR ONE

Cast: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Hank Azaria
Director: Harold Ramis
Playing at: Carmike, Cinemark, Chapel Hills, Hollywood, Tinseltown
Rated: PG-13 (for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence)
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

GRADE: C