‘Year One’ is a Long, Tiresome Skit
-----According to Wikipedia.org, many know Jack Black as a member of the “Frat Pack,” a group of popular comedians who all budded around the late nineties. The group includes Jack Black, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Owen and Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Ben Stiller. In light of this, I see a call for a new name to be given to the frequent stars of raunchy comedy king, Judd Apatows’ productions. I deem that from now on, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Michael Cera, shall collectively be known as, The “Perv Pack.”
-----‘Year One’ is the story of two buddies leaving their tribe after one of them eats some Forbidden Fruit. The two journey across numerous locations as they run into historical figures like Abraham and Cain and Abel among others. They soon find themselves in tons of trouble, as they try to slapstick their way out of numerous situations.
-----Jack Black plays Jack Black in the Jack Black routine. I can’t really hold this against him, seeing as that’s what you’d expect from a Jack Black movie, but the routine is starting to run dry. Now that we’ve seen him in numerous starring roles, he seems to be going the one-note way of Will Ferrell, doing the same movie to a different theme. He’s funny for about the first twenty minutes or so of the film, but as the plot drags along, you begin to grow tired of his antics. Michael Cera also plays the only role he’s proven capable of, his being a much less funny one than Black’s. He too gets some solid laughs in the beginning of the film, but as the plot goes on, the laughs become fewer and farther between. At least he has some chemistry with Black; the movie could have been downright painful if that element was lacking. Supporting roles include an annoying and primarily unfunny one from David Cross as Cain. He’s annoying pretty quick, and one of the most slapstick-reliant characters on the screen. Paul Rudd plays his brother Abel, but not for long. Bill Hader also has a short stint as a Shaman in Black and Cera’s village. Even the hilarious Hader has trouble getting laughs from the weak script. Hank Azaria, fresh off of a mediocre turn in ‘Night at the Museum II,’ plays Abraham, and he’s not really funny either. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays his son, Isaac. The young star of ‘Superbad’ is basically his McLovin character with long hair in the Stone Age…and it’s not very funny. Noticing a trend? It seems that not even Apatow’s “Perv Pack” can save this feeble slapstick as the jokes are less funny by the minute.
-----The story is also very weak, even more so than the slapstick jokes in this tale of beautiful women and cave men (ha, ha). It drags on slowly as the plot starts to get more jumbled and more stupid with each passing scene. Taking cheap shots at religion and boasting a fat comedian in caveman clothes, the humor even stoops to the level of horrific spoofs like ‘Dance Flick’ in a few select scenes. ‘Year One’ would’ve been much better off had it simply realized that gross-out gags are rarely funny, and are usually just gross. Yes, the promising premise and comedic talents of the cast quickly fall by the way, proving that no one can save a poor script full of sheer stupidity.
-----Technically the film is like the humor. An initially novel art direction proves to be nothing more than tiresome in this long and boring skit they’re passing as a movie. The costumes are funny for five minutes, and then they lose their humor aspect. The art direction is fun…and then stupid. Many of these elements would have worked perfectly for a skit, but fail miserably for a feature length film. The score is usually typical Stone Age sound, but has hip-hop reminiscent beats thrown in here and there. These are kind of funny, but are very fleeting.
-----It seems odd that a film would crack so many jokes about Christianity, when the primary groups of people that will even get the jokes are Christians. And while the film was stupid and silly enough that I didn’t take serious offense at its poking fun of Old Testament stories, it does push the limit, and may offend some. Unfortunately, all of the comedic talent in the film, including more than half of the “Perv Pack,” can’t save ‘Year One.’ It’s funny to start, and has the occasional bit of quality humor, but the jokes and virtually everything about the film wears thin by the third act. Only Jack Black diehard devotees will find anything to smile about as the film stumbles along. Audiences will get noticeably quieter and quieter as they see what could have been a classic comedy proving to be a weak slapstick with each comedian trying to get their two cents worth. ‘Year One’ certainly gets some laughs, but not enough to sustain a disappointing display of comedic storytelling.
|
