Truly, Year One is inspired, as in it’s heavily inspired by just about everything in the Apatow catalogue. Sadly, director Harold Ramis used to be the Apatow of his generation, but now finds himself having to receive his successor’s graces in order to make a comedy people get excited about. Unfortunately, there’s something tired about Year One, and not just the heroic output of Judd Apatow and his cohorts. Basically, Jack Black gets loud and obnoxious while Michael Cera is the quiet but steadfast wall flower that provides back up to his fatter, more arrogant cohort. Well, except for the fact that this is all set during the caveman days. Or maybe the Book of Genesis days, I’m not sure.

I do know that we start out in a caveman village where the over-eager Zed (Black) is always trying to talk up his hunting skills and schmooze the ladies. His good friend Oh (Cera) is a gatherer that pines for the lovely Eema (Juno Temple), who doesn’t even know he exists. Fed up with life in the village, Zed eats of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge and is cast out by the village as a cursed man. Oh joins him in the wilds for rather non-determinant reasons, but as they make their way to start the new Muscle Tribe of Danger and Excellence, they encounter many of the big names from the first book of the Bible.

In some ways, Year One feels like a throwback to something that Mel Brooks might have done, but in other ways, it feels like an elaborate Family Guy cutaway gag. Ramis co-wrote the script with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg from the US version of The Office and there’s definitely that type of character based antic humour at the forefront. There’s also an assortment of gags and slick one-liners, but much of Year One is built upon the carefully crafted personas of Black and Cera. In the film, depending on the scene, it either works or it doesn’t. I think that Black and Cera are a good team, and I think if this film had come out a few years ago it would have felt funnier. But I’ve seen too much of Black being loud and demented (not to mention shirtless) and too much of Cera being quietly sarcastic.

Actually, the same goes for many of the supporting players too. David Cross and Paul Rudd as Cain and Abel have the same batting average as Black and Cera, but Cross gets the benefit of doing a really funny bit with Ramis himself in a cameo. Hank Azaria plays Abraham who starts as kind of annoying but devolves into a one joke wonder as he gets into the whole idea of circumcision. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, here-to and forever to be known as McLovin’, plays Abraham’s son Isaac and does himself no service in the opportunity. Most egregious of all is Oliver Platt, whose effeminate and hairy-chested high priest is an elaborate and tired cliché. This is an award-winning actor for crying out loud, why is he involved in a gag where Cera rubs hot oil over his artificially hairy torso?

The saving grace is that Year One is occasionally pretty funny. The true comedy tends to come concentrated in certain scenes as opposed to being spread throughout the entire film. It’s probably Ramis’ strongest film in years, but considering his batting average lately that’s really not saying much. Sadly it also doesn’t give my much hope for the Ghostbusters III script, rumoured to be worked on by the same team, because if they can be so hit and miss on an original script what can they be expected to do with an established story and cast. But overall, I think you will laugh in Year One and if nothing else, it’s a satisfying, if not completely successful comedy. Maybe if the cavemen had a hangover this thing would have really been kicked up a notch.