Review: Year One
Harold Ramis, writer and/or director of classics like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Vacation, and Groundhog Day, is back is back with his latest endeavor into comedy with Year One. The film stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as Zed and Oh, the losers of a tribe of hunters and gathers that are banished after eating from the “Forbidden Tree of Knowledge.” They go on a journey that takes them through much of the Book of Genesis, meeting charachters such as Adam, Cain & Abel, Abraham and Isaac. They find their tribe had now been taken captive, among them the loves of their lives, and it is up to them to save them.
The movie is a weird one to peg. On one hand, there are plenty of times when you will laugh, I mean the man wrote some fucking classics, its just that the comedy and the storytelling is muddled, to put it best.
When dealing with the subject that he is, basically the latter part of the Book of Genesis, you feel it has to be BIG. This hurts the movie because it’s trying to drive a rather simple tale through a lot of story points. It even jumps some story/joke conclusions to cut the time, but its not enough. As far as the comedy goes, I feel that Ramis is trying to meld to many brands of comedy. The film has the Apatow brand (here as a producer), the Jack Black crazy guy stuff, and then its all molded into a Monty Python-esque humor. It doesn’t blend well as a whole, for some reason reminding me of Family Guy of late.
Black is his usual self, but really its getting kind of old to me. I think Black should stick to playing secondary characters, his personality works better in that position, though I loved School of Rock, so who knows. Cera plays an awkward loser, very innovative st….oh wait. I love MC, but I would love to see him just come up with something a little different (but I can’t wait for him to play himself in Paper Hearts).
I guess the movie has gotten my mind all muddled now.
