Anthony Ricardi‘s review of:
This is a film targeted directly at prurient 13-year-old-boys (or those with equivalent, or even less, maturity and intellect) and that handful of pitiable individuals who place Mel Brooks’ offensive “History of the World: Part 1″ near the top of their favorite flicks list. For most everyone else, Harold Ramis’ latest (can this really be the same guy who gave us “Groundhog Day”?) will be as much of an uncomfortable endurance exercise as actually trekking across ancient wastelands on foot, like the film’s protags, whilst continually stepping in things highly unpleasant. In that light, it must be mentioned right off the bat that this was initially rated R (and justifiably so) but director Ramis and producer Judd Apatow appeared in person in front of the MPAA board to lobby, then took out only a couple of lines of dialog to achieve their end… a PG-13. Folks, to truly cut this thing down to a PG-13, one would have to lose at least half an hour of it (which would be better for everyone, actually). This is no stealth R, it is an absolutely filthy gross-out fest; an in-your-face abuse of the rating system and of any family that is unfortunate enough to wander into a theater playing it.
As for the title of this one, it turns out to be as wrong as the film’s rating. This story doesn’t take place in 1 AD, or CE or whatever you’d like to call it…. it begins somewhere thousands of years earlier, seemingly in the Stone Age (the Ringo Starr vehicle “Caveman” looks like a comic masterpiece in comparison to this). We meet a tribe composed of hunters (including Jack Black as the hapless, overconfident Zed) and gatherers (Michael Cera is Oh, seemingly the only male amongst the women foragers). This is caveman time with a twist, however… one right out of Genesis (sorta). You see, there also happens to be the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil right out of the Garden of Eden… but no Adam and Eve, just our two goofball Fred and Barney wannabes. It is at this point that the film shows its split personality, which it retains for the rest of its running time. It wants to be a parody of the origins of civilization (hence the Mel Brooks reference) and a biblical parody (think Monty Python’s “Life of Brian,” but Old Testament, not New). Later we meet good-for-nothing Cain (David Cross) and the unfortunate Abel (Paul Rudd), then later the same day, Abraham(!) (Hank Azaria doing a dead-on George C. Scott) who lived many, many, many generations apart (thousands of years, as a matter of fact)… so your guess is as good as this critic’s as to when it’s supposed to occur. Ah, yes… we also get treated to an extended stay in good old Sodom (where Oliver Platt is wasted as an overly hirsute, perverted high priest)… without the much-anticipated payoff of a fire and brimstone finale (rats!). Like an addled history student’s concept of what went on and when, a lot of stuff here has been time-compressed, left out completely or mixed/mashed up. Good grief, what a mess… and a derivative, terribly unfunny one to boot.
And don’t expect any CGI whiz-bang to save the day this time, because there isn’t any! At least “Caveman” had those great stop-motion dinos courtesy of Jim Danforth and Dave Allen…
In a summer of disappointing “comedies” this one is THE worst.
Azaria’s circumcision-obsessed Abraham was the only performance in this film that approached even mildly humorous for this reviewer, but a large part of that was derived from the Scott impression, and the memories of Scott’s role as Abraham in the ponderous 1966 “The Bible.” Cera as Oh also had a few fleeting moments, but his self-effacing passive-aggressive sarcasm thing is getting as old as his entire generation’s overuse of that defensive conversational crutch. Jack Black, well, is Jack Black… reaching his film nadir in a scene in which he actually does a taste test of animal waste. Repeatedly.
This whole unsanitary ordeal should (if you have even a modicum of self-esteem) leave you with the same aftertaste Zed had.
Yuck.
Bottom Line: An idiotic, gross and blasphemous waste of time travel.
Critic’s Rating: F (for Fools)
Most Talked About