Year One Review

Harold Ramis's Judd Apatow-produced Year One certainly doesn't seek to reinvent the wheel, appropriately enough, given his two leads wouldn't know one if they saw it. Jack Black and Michael Cera play Zed and Oh, two knuckle-dragging hunter-gatherers encountering civilisation for the first time, as they leave their primitive jungle tribe and bump into Biblical staples ranging from bickering bros Cain (a spiky David Cross) and Abel, to a circumcision-happy Isaac (a scene-stealing Hank Azaria). Along the way they tangle with slave-merchants, Roman centurions bearing a suspiciously strong resemblance to Vinnie Jones, and, inevitably, a PG-friendly orgy in the swinging citadel of Sodom.

From jungle to urban sinbin, Year One is all pretty amiable stuff, and although it's safe to say that everyone involved, probably right down to the smallest crowd-scene extra, has participated in better things, Year One doesn't deserve the critical pummelling it's taking in some corners. Sure, there are plenty of bum notes - literally, where some of the more scatological content is concerned - but it's not the epic fail we'd feared.

Much of your reaction to Ramis's numbskull comedy will depend on your tolerance for the antics of Jack Black. The days when he jolted jaded palates as a breath of fresh air in High Fidelity feel almost as historically distant as the events of Year One - you'll need some affection for the portly performer of later years, the Jack Black of broad clowning and slightly by-the-book wild-eyed gurning. Even his detractors would be hard pressed to deny that of all roles, that of a bumptious, foolhardy example of early man is undoubtedly uniquely suited to his larger-than-life brand of tomfoolery.