The Last Movie I Saw

I consider Harold Ramis t0 be one of the key underrated figures in comedy over the past thirty plus years. He was a writer (and occasional performer-- anyone remember Moe Green?) on the original SCTV series, co-wrote the classic National Lampoon's Animal House, had a hand in Caddyshack, Stripes and Ghostbusters (again, as writer and performer in the last two), and made a classic out of the most unlikely premise I can remember with Groundhog Day (writer and director). He doesn't hit a home run every time out, but he has definitely built up a large storehouse of credibility with me. Unfortunately, his latest, Year One falls short of his best work. It's amiable enough, and I chuckled pretty regularly throughout (Jack Black and Michael Cera are a good pairing: one frantic, the other low key), but there's no really over the top guffaws in this mellow paeon to the stupidity of the ancients. It is kind of a neat idea though-- normally all we choose to remember from the BC era are the giants of philosophical, religious, or military prowess. This movie, much as Monty Python did a generation or two ago, suggests a much less enlightened group of ancestors than we generally care to acknowledge. But the film never really takes off. It's the kind of thing that, when it pops up on TBS in a few months, will command my attention while channel surfing at least until the next commercial break, when I'll wander away and forget to return. And I'll still look forward to seeing what Ramis comes up with next.