Year One C+

Rated PG-13, In Theatres, 97 minutes

Pastors and traveling evangelists have been mining Old Testament stories for laughs (and scares) for years, so, when I heard one of the best comedic pedigrees in years not associated with Apatow and Co was taking on Python-esque Genesis farce Year One, I couldn’t have been more delighted. Comedy veteran Harold Ramis directs, and the players include Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria, Horatio Sans, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, and Olivia Wilde (please see picture). Unfortunately, that amount of talent on the screen serves to magnify the (frequent) stretches of lame jokes. That, coupled with a too-heavy reliance on poop/fart jokes and an odd decision to stay politically correct bogs down this still occasionally hilarious film.

Director (and co-writer) Harold Ramis helmed and penned such comedic classics as Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, National Lampoon's Vacation, and Analyze This and shared writing duties on Stripes, Ghostbusters, Meatballs, and Animal House. The man can write and direct a yuckfest with the best of them. Unfortunately, the Bible is tricky territory, and the evangelical wallet, deemed the holy grail ever since The Passion of the Christ proved that the 80% of the U.S. population that self-identify as Christians go to movies, is no easier. You can’t help but hear evangelical test audiences and Fuller Old Testament consultants throughout. Ramis is hardly a study hand, first pandering to the Christian audience, then (understandably) concerned about offending the gays in the Sodom story line.

And then there’s the cast. Jack Black is in his usual over-the-top-lead-personae. Michael Cera is George Michael in the Stone Age. I like Cera’s schtick better and they both have moments, but they’re phoning it in. The stand-outs here are Oliver Platt as a transvestite priest in Sodom (to Molock, an actual ancient Semitic god, and they get the worship of him about right here) who has the hots for Cera’s character, and Hank Azaria as Abraham caught in the act of sacrificing his son (McLovin’, incidentally). Azaria and Platt get the joke and seem to realize that some people are going to be offended, so let them be, but most won’t unless they actually slander God or major teachings of the Bible. Of course, Platt can’t go wrong at that point. He’s a priest to the most loathed god in the Old Testament in a town that is burned by hellfire. Speaking of, the toughest parts to take in the film are the ones that stick close to the Biblical texts. Burning virgins alive is pretty rough. It’s hard to get laughs at one brother killing another, and a dad about to kill his son is pretty harsh. The film doesn’t dodge these Biblical points yet seems scared to really go to where the hard laughs are. In the end, there are laughs here, but I’d wait to video. C+