Year One
2009 · Directed by Harold Ramis
Original language: English
- comedy
- adventure
The story
When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.
What it’s like
Bright, flat daylight over sun-bleached deserts and dusty grassland, with wide establishing shots of ancient landscapes that feel more like open travelogue than epic spectacle. The palette runs ochre, tan and muddy green, and the costumes and sets look deliberately scruffy and unpolished, which suits the broad, goofy slapstick of its humour. Camera work is conventional studio comedy: mostly medium shots and quick cuts, with pratfalls and reaction faces held in plain view. The score is bouncy and percussive, leaning on drums and folksy strings, and the mood is loose and irreverent rather than contemplative. Vibe: silly, lightweight, cheerfully crude. It suits a casual Friday night, a group watch, or an easy background comedy while doing something else. Pacing is brisk and episodic, with gags coming in quick succession and a loose, slightly shaggy structure. Two mismatched, self-absorbed men stumble through a series of misadventures and gradually become more loyal to each other. Intensity is mild-to-moderate: a fair amount of crude sexual innuendo and bawdy jokes, some mild peril and slapstick violence with no gore, and brief cruelty played for laughs. For people who want big laughs, a buddy-road-trip structure, and irreverent historical goofiness rather than anything gentle or reflective.
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