Monday, June 22, 2009

Nog Sees Year One and Declares It The Summer's Worst Comedy!

As unfunny as much of it is, I can't work up a lot of hatred toward Year One. It's just a tone-deaf ramshackle comedy in which Ramis and his writers seem to have followed this maxim: when in doubt over whether to go for a marginally incisive religious joke or to go for another dick, fart, or shit joke, always go for the latter. There's minor enjoyment in Michael Cera's performance as the world's most sensitive caveman (yes, he's a "gatherer"), but most of the laughs come more from his line delivery than anything particularly funny in the dialogue. David Cross as Cain gets a few laughs too, but it's a shame to take a comedian known for his absolutely corrosive religious commentary and put him in this toothless flick, which seems to have no particular interest in religious satire. Hank Azaria's brief appearance as Abraham provides a minor highlight with a running joke about his enthusiasm for circumcision ("It's a nice sleek look. I think it will really catch on."). Wait for late-night cable on this one, and watch it get trampled by Michael Bay's 43 fighting robots on Wednesday in a film which I predict will be much easier to hate.

4 comments:

  1. One of my coworkers swears by these movies, and even HE was like, "Dude, YEAR ONE sucked." So.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, it's a good thing I don't mind seeing (certain kinds of) bad movies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. . . . .I love that I see virtually every bad horror film in the theatre, but managed to miss what I've heard is a rather great one with DRAG ME TO HELL. < throws up hands >

    ReplyDelete
  4. Track it down! It's bound to still be playing in KC, right?

    ReplyDelete