Yes, Jack Black and Michael Cera are talented comedic actors, and together they have a sort of Abbott and Costello thing going on. But please, someone give them a decent script! Two stars riffing in mangy furs and bad wigs do not an entire movie make. I’m truly surprised that writer/director/producer Harold Ramis and producer Judd Apatow would let something like this cringer slip out. I mean, Ramis is responsible for Groundhog Day, Vacation and Caddyshack, for heavens sake! And Apatow’s stamp is on some of the most popular comedies of the last five years. So what’s with this attempt to enter into Mel Brooks and Monty Python territory? Too many high nights spent watching Carl Gottleib’s Caveman?

What there is of a plot revolves around Zed and Oh (Black and Cera), a couple of screw-up hunter-gatherer Neanderthal types who flee their tribe and come across various Old Testament characters. These include Cain and Abel, (David Cross and an uncredited Paul Rudd) Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse), slave traders and a host of debauched characters from Sodom, among them Oliver Platt as a hilarious high priest/drag queen. On occasion Zed and Oh try to rescue a couple of girls from their tribe, who become enslaved and get passed around from owner to owner. A series of crude, antiquated, and/or flat jokes are loosely strung together, and just when you come to the realization that you’re really tired of waiting for the next crack and don’t really care what happens in the end, the film meanders off into the sunset, trying in vain to redeem itself with bloopers alongside the credits. Year One is not without its moments – there’s some good old Borscht Belt humor if you’re still into that sort of thing. But for the most part, it’s sad, slow and silly. Don’t hold your breath for a New Testament sequel.

Rated PG-13

–Lisa Johnson Mandell