Critic's Rave: 'Year One' sends comedy back to the stone age
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By ANDREW PARKHURST
andrew.parkhurst@lee.net
Thursday, June 25, 2009 3:32 PM CDT
Comedy is all about taking risks. Giving the audience the unexpected — a well-timed zinger here, an unexpected sight gag there. Mix it up with a little social satire, a few comedic role-reversals or some improvisational witticisms and then you’re really cooking.
Think about it — essentially the entire foundation of modern comedy is based on setting an audience up to expect one thing, then delivering another.
I would venture that few in Hollywood understand what makes film comedy both a thrilling and risky venture better than Harold Ramis, who co-wrote and directed an uncharacteristically unfunny film, “Year One.”
Consider, if you will, the incredible string of comedy hits Ramis is responsible for as screenwriter, director or both: “Animal House,” “Caddyshack,” “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Groundhog Day,” just to name a few. Note the massive amount of risk taken in each.
Who could have imagined that audiences would be willing to endure Bill Murray’s umpteenth reliving of the same dreary February day in “Groundhog Day”? Or that a 50-foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man terrorizing New York in “Ghostbusters” wouldn’t be met with derisive snickering?
In each, Ramis boldly took a chance — putting himself on the line (and often in the picture) — only to have it pay off handsomely.
“Year One,” to be sure, was an inherently risky project as well. From a talent standpoint, it most likely had the appearance of relative safety, since it is populated with bankable comedic actors (mostly from the Judd Apatow troupe of regulars) that not only includes leads Jack Black and Michael Cera, but also the likes of David Cross, Paul Rudd, Hank Azaria and an over-the-top Oliver Platt, who takes his hedonistic High Priest character to ridiculous places few actors would dare traverse.
The real gamble, however, is with the material itself. With its loincloth-clad protagonists and farcical viewpoint, “Year One” is easily as strange as, say, the idea of following around a group of ghost-fighting parapsychologists, but is far more unwieldy, since much of the humor relies on its audience having at least a cursory knowledge of ancient history and Old Testament Biblical events.
In the film, two nearly prehistoric slackers named Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) are exiled from their hunting/gathering community and set off to experience the ancient world, where they encounter larger-than-life figures, such as Adam (played by Ramis himself), Abraham, Cain and Abel (who, predictably, seem to have some family issues) and so on.
The primary contrivance of the film is that the majority of the characters look at their world and the situations they find themselves from a casual, modern outlook — as if the characters themselves are able to step back and comment on the various absurdities of the ancient past.
Granted, such a high concept idea for a script would certainly seem to provide ample fodder for a multitude of “Gee, isn’t it strange that people used to do that?” moments — and, to be fair, “Year One” has a few (though the film isn’t smart enough to realize that future societies will likely regard our contemporary customs with similar puzzlement).
However, for the most part, the film would rather spend time on tired non-jokes involving various bodily functions, lame sight gags (several of which I refuse to believe were even funny on paper, especially a low-speed chase involving oxen-drawn carriages) and an endless cavalcade of improvisational riffing, which are only fruitful in producing a light smattering of laughs.
As a result, personally, I’m going to choose to regard “Year One” as a rare misstep in Ramis’ consistently funny filmography. After all, if you gamble enough, you eventually have to lose a few.
Year One
* (out of 4)
Directed by Harold Ramis. Written by Harold Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Hank Azaria, Olivia Wilde and Juno Temple. Rated PG-13. Now playing at Micon Cinemas 1, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30 and 9:40 p.m.
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