Hunt for laughs fails

WHAT do you call a comedy without a single laugh?

The punchline is: Harold Ramis's ramshackle road movie through the Paleolithic era headlined by Jack Black and Michael Cera, two daftly gifted comic actors.

Black is the intense comic who lit up High Fidelity, School of Rock and Kung Fu Panda.

Cera adopts a more laidback delivery that suited Juno and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

But put the actors side-by-side in Year One as hunter-gatherers with a nose for adventure, and the results are painful.

Pelt-clad primitives Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) are incompetent and lazy, and don't pull their weight.

Zed cannot master his bow and arrow, and is a woeful hunter.

"I'll be back, unless something goes horribly right," he tells Oh before his latest disastrous attempt to woo alpha-female Maya.

Likewise, Oh fails to fulfil his duties as a gatherer. Nor can he turn the head of the object of his affections, Zed's sister Eema.

The friends are banished and embark on a quest of self-discovery in an ancient world riddled with danger.

En route, the misfits encounter wondrous creations such as the wheel, and colourful characters.

Zed and Oh unexpectedly find courage and determination in the face of adversity, arriving in Sodom where the flamboyant high priest threatens to sacrifice Maya and Eema to the gods.

The buddies orchestrate a daring rescue mission, but first they must outwit the captain of the guards, Sargon. Foolishly, the script begins at the dawn of mankind and merrily incorporates biblical references, which beg unfavourable comparisons with Life of Brian.

Monty Python's film may be 30 years old, but it boasts more laughs in the opening five minutes than Year One can muster in its entirety.

Banter between Black and Cera fails to spark. RATING: 2/10