YEAR ONE (USA 2009) *
Directed by Harold Ramis

YEAR ONE is supposed to be year one in the year of our Lord, which is the first year after the birth of Christ.  But the story of Harold Ramis’ totally unfunny comedy takes place in cavemen times as observed by the attire of its two main characters, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera).

Yet they meet up with biblical characters like Adam (Harold Ramis himself) and Eve (Rhoda Giffis), Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd) and Abraham (Hank Azaria) putting time out of sync.  Not that accuracy matters that much in a comedy but one can at least hope the writers would give it a little nod.

Ramis film has the occasional feel of MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN, only because a lot of the costumes and even intonation of the ancient speeches are copied.  A few situations, such as a stoning is also repeated, but here with little success in humor. 

For all the money put in and comedic set-ups thought of, YEAR ONE hardly generates any laughs.  It is odd that the biggest laughs from the audience during the promo screening came from the fart and ***censored*** jokes – which says something about the movie.

Black is again at his annoying best, screaming out at the top of his lungs his brand of humor.  Black is funniest in movies like KUNG-FU PANDA when he cannot be seen.  Oddly enough, the actor that generates the most laughs is Oliver Pratt who plays the high priest with all the camp he can muster.

YEAR ONE looks very expensive with all the ancient shrines and wooden/stone architecture.  This is producer Judd Apatow (who made last year’s funniest movies PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) un-funniest movie,