Year One

I’m starting to get a bit bored of Michael Cera. Initially his shy, self-effacing attitude seemed rather endearing, but after giving basically the same performance in Superbad, Juno, Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist and now Year One, it’s starting to get a little annoying. What at first seemed to stem from a lack of confidence in his own abilities is starting to seem a tad self-indulgent.

This time his shtick sees him team up with Jack Black as a pair of primitive men. Black is Zed, the inept hunter, while Cera is Oh, the gentle gatherer. When Zed is banished by his tribe he and Oh end up on a surreal road trip where they stumble from the Stone Age into scenes from the bible, rub up against the emergence of civilisation and end up visiting the Romans. This is certainly not a movie that is interested in historical accuracy or sticking to a single time period.

While director and co-writer Harold Ramis occasionally sneaks the odd interesting idea and sense of purpose into the movie, proffering oddly philosophical insights into the nature of religion and humanity every so often, even he seems to give up and allows things to merely become a series of stale fart and poop book straight out of the book, ‘1001 Cheap Laughs That Have Been Done To Death’.

You can tell a film is in trouble is when the funniest bit they can find for the TV advert is a woman showing she hasn’t shaved her armpit. Admittedly if you laugh at the very mention of the word circumcision you’ll probably like Year One, but even in the increasingly desperate gross-out comedy canon, this isn’t a particularly good entry.

It’s a shame really, as there are moments when the film really seems like it’s going to get going as a smart, funny and profane piece of entertainment, but then they throw out yet another blindingly obvious joke and you realise the movie’s just a bit of a stinker.

Overall Verdict: Despite occasional oddly profound moments, Year One is mainly just a gross-out drag.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac