Dir.
Harold Ramis, US, 2009, 97 mins
Cast: Jack Black, Michael Cera, David Cross
Review by Carol Allen
Director/co-writer Ramis, the man behind now classic comedies such as Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, has come up with a really promising idea here - a romp through the Old Testament with early man duo Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) putting their comic oar into a reworking of some of the biblical legends. Unfortunately though it doesn't quite cut the comedy mustard.
The film starts off promisingly. Zed, Oh and their fellow villagers dressed in animal skins and speaking perfect American hints that we might be in for an interesting send up of the "One Million Years BC" sort of movie. But it takes ages to get into any sort of comic stride and scenes often end abruptly without getting anywhere, such as the potentially brilliant idea that it's Zed and the rather girly Oh who pick the Forbidden Fruit, in the course of which they are involved in some business with a serpent, which isn't developed at all - though it looks from the out takes at the end of the movie as though there was originally more to it. After being banished from the village for breaking the forbidden fruit rule - an act which doesn't incidentally appear to have given them anything in the way of either knowledge or original sin - the two of them set off to explore the world. It's a journey which involves them in helping to cover up Cain's murder of Abel, saving Isaac from sacrifice by Abraham and being sold into slavery in the city of Sodom.
Black and Cera do their best with the material and there are some funny moments, like our heroes getting "car sick" because they're not used to the high speed of the oxen cart, which relies on that new, high tech invention, the wheel. Hank Azaria plays a wonderfully pompous Abraham, who invents the concept of circumcision and has the immortal line "I'll be right back to cut your penises" - enough to send any bloke running for the hills. Cross is also good as Cain, who turns out to be a truly treacherous friend to the duo and there's an all too tiny, uncredited cameo from Paul Rudd as his unfortunate brother. There's not much for the girls in the cast to do except look decorative but this is a boys' film after all. And the city of Sodom is a bit tame overall - not a genuine orgy in sight. That was probably to ensure the movie got a family rating, despite some rather sadistic antics from Vinnie Jones as a Sodomite soldier.
What the subject cries out for though is the cheeky irreverence and wit of The Life of Brian rather than the contemporary gross out values comedy treatment that it gets here. But many of today's audiences seem to really enjoy pee, pooh and fart jokes, which are here in abundance, so, as Miss Jean Brodie once almost said: "For those who like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like."
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