“Year One” is about two outcasts from an early hunter-gatherer tribe, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera). Zed is kicked out of the tribe after partaking of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Oh joins him after Zed accidentally burns down the village on his way out.

They set out to explore beyond the mountains where, contrary to their tribes’ common knowledge, they discover the world does not end.

They come across various biblical characters as they wander. They witness Cain (David Cross) murder Abel (Paul Rudd).

They stay Abraham’s (Hank Azaria) hand just as he’s about to sacrifice Isaac (Christopher Mitz-Plasse). And then they travel to the city of Sodom.

 

The first part of the movie suffers from a lack of any real goal for the two characters. They leave the tribe and … what’s their goal? What are they setting out to achieve? Nothing.

Not until they come across members of their former tribe, Eema (Juno Temple) and Maya (June Diane Raphael), who have been captured and are being sold as slaves, do they have any motivating factor: to rescue and free them. Thirty minutes to develop a plot? Bad form.

The best moment of the movie isn’t a funny one. It’s more along the lines of co-writer and director Harold Ramis’ more existential side, a scene between Zed and Oh in the Holy of Holies (a shrine and a not very clever double entendre) in Sodom. Oh contemplates that maybe there isn’t a God and everything is just random.

Then he prays just in case. It’s at this moment you realize that the movie has most likely suffered by producer Judd Apatow’s brand and the casting of Black and many of Apatow’s regulars. The two characters are searching for meaning, but that’s largely lost on them and the comedy. It’s in that moment you get a brief glimpse of maybe what this was supposed to have been. 

 

Black plays his character not as someone who’s searching for his place in the world but as an idiot who eats the fruit of knowledge and believes he’s now smart and chosen by God.

Cera does a little better job conveying a search for meaning, but he, too, fails at it and is just an awkward teen trying to get a girl. He’s likeable but doesn’t bring the depth I felt was supposed to be there.

There are some funny moments, but the jokes seem mostly to miss the mark. The movie isn’t overly crude or gross, but when it goes for it, it doesn’t work — it’s not funny, doesn’t add anything and is pointless.

The movie is forgettable, uninspired and really only mildly amusing. If you’re in the mood for a Biblical comedy, stick to “Life of Brian” or “History of the World, Part I.”

“Year One” is rated PG-13 for crude humor and mild language.