'Year One' Redefines History -And Makes It Funnier, Too

Remember when you were studying some elitist vocabulary-ridden book in some English class and some teacher brought up imagery? It was the bane of your existence. You had to find examples of imagery in the book, write an essay about imagery, come up with your own imagery. It was exhausting. Well, imagine imagery being awesome, hilarious and only a little disturbing. At least for two hours.

If you can't picture imagery ever being any of those aforementioned things, you need to see "Year One." For one thing, it's one of the few blatantly bad-looking comedies that doesn't give away all its one-liners in the trailer. And for another, well, the imagery. Allow me to put it in perspective: In "Year One," Michael Cera wears a teensy loincloth, Oliver Platt sports elaborate eye makeup and a thicket of chest hair that would make Austin Powers jealous and David Cross has better fake hair than he did during the third season of "Arrested Development." Actually, that's not saying much. But stay with me.

"Year One" plays the "A Knight's Tale" card a bunch of times-you know, anachronistic rock music, un-ancient-looking nature, generic "old" potato-sack/linen costumes-which is to be expected from a film that is set in 1 A.D., the only record of which exists in the Bible (not exactly everyone's favorite primary source). Don't blame them for having poor set design, though. Again, they don't have a lot to work with. The blatant lack of authenticity is actually quite delightful, as it was in the Heath Ledger classic mentioned above.

This movie is tacky on purpose, and it should be. The wig on Cera and, presumably, the natural hair on Jack Black look wonky, but they play Oh and Zed, respectively, and you know what? Maybe they haven't washed their hair in awhile. It's 1 A.D. They have more important things to worry about, like figuring out their destiny. Zed (naturally) takes the alpha role and leads them astray from their village and deep into what is presumably the West Bank, where they hang out with Jews, Gentiles and crazies everywhere. There are ladies involved, too, not to worry. Cera and Black are always a treat to watch when their characters pursue a love interest; Cera brings out his typecast awkward charm and Black pulls from his vault of hilarious faces. The girls resist at first, but … you know the rest.

It all seems a little cheesy until you consider the context, which they really milk in this film. "Year One" brings up Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham (Hank Azaria) and Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, or McLovin from "Superbad"), the invention of the wheel, the end of the world, idolatry and the rivalry between Cain (Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd, who is barely on screen because of the whole Cain and Abel story). Heavy stuff, right?

But what else would they talk about? We can only imagine that these were the topics at hand during the first year, so in the context of it all it's not ambitious, pretentious or even disrespectful. The film probably did not set out to wax deeply poetic, but it ended up doing so. It's kind of cool, though. Imagine how weird it must have been to see a wheel for the first time. Or metal armor. It kind of blows your mind. So does the idea of Sodom and Gomorrah. Regardless of your religious affiliations, you have to admit that the Bible gave movies some pretty crazy shit to work with. To quote Cain, "You know what the best part about Sodom is? The sodomy!"