DVD/Blu-ray Round-Up: Year One & Godzilla

We're looking at two releases here at Hecklerspray this week; the new Jack Black/Michael Cera Neanderthal comedy Year One and a Blu-ray release of the much maligned lizard dump Godzilla.

Year One – DVD:


Harold Ramis - comedy genius responsible for Groundhog Day and the best film of all timeâ'¢ Ghostbusters - writes and directs Year One. Current comedy behemoths Jack Black and Michael Cera are cavemen Zed and Oh, both walking through various biblical settings trying to provide about as much subtle rib-tickling as someone stabbing you with a blunt knife. Ramis – once king of underplayed one-liners – simply lets Black and Cera loose with a series of uninspired improv set pieces.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the sheer pointlessness of the whole picture. Most of the scenarios involve sex in some way - masturbation, lesbian, gay, doggy, etc - which makes much of the religious backdrop completely irrelevant. Black and Cera play on their usual shtick, by now wearing thin. Like much of the cast they are wasted, with only Hank Azaria's cameo actually raising a smirk.

Religion and its foundations are deeply linked with satire - Monty Python proved that - but this is Ramis trying to appeal to a new Animal House crowd, while assuming that the youth of today are so bored of intelligent comedy that he must resort to the type of toilet humour of his successors like Rogan and Apatow. This isn't his style and what we are left with is a film that should sit among other uninspired 'spoofs' – perhaps Religious Movie is a more fitting title.

The DVD disc fillers are as equally ineffective as the film; unfunny deleted scenes, alternative endings and gag reels really make this a struggle to like. Also quite bafflingly, for any World of Warcraft fans a tribute to the popular online video Leeroy Jenkins is provided. The commentary is unapologetic, Ramis, Black and Cera chuckle about on set shenanigans but, predictably, not much at the film.

hecklerspray Rating: 2/5

Godzilla – Blu-Ray:

Paint us cynical, but here at hecklerspray we have become used the unfailing ineptitude of Hollywood over the years. Take this summer for example: both Terminator and Transformers churned out underwhelming plot-muddling guff in the way of sequels when clearly there is enough previous quality material to create entertaining bolt-bashing blockbusters.

Flip your minds back to 1998. The world was a more innocent place back then. Sure, we'd been burned before by the likes of rubber-nipple Batman and Robin, but we just had the box-office bombardment that was Titanic - the summer season was back!

So the expectations were high and – as we are used to now – they were dumped on in gigantic style by the beast that was Godzilla. No fault of the monster, but when Hollywood makes a giant dino flick, deprived of any resonance and casting Matthew Broderick in the lead, it's setting itself up for a massive failure.

So the film contains enough frustrating collateral damage to make Michael Bay go hard, and enough plot to fit into a crisp packet – but that is the least of its worries. The action in uninspired, the CG flips between ropey and impressive and then to animatronics that look like a Blue Peter job. Matthew Broderick also turns in a solidly turgid performance as some worm guy who apparently is the only one who knows anything about giant radioactive lizards. Broderick, as usual, can't work out the difference between whiny and charismatic (name a good film he was a lead in – not including Ferris Bueller and Election).

The Blu-ray proves that no matter of sheen can polish a turd and the extras are as pitiful as the film. SFX commentary, a highlight reel of monster action from rubber-suited Japanese Godzilla films and a preview of the upcoming 2012 - all of which prove to be as lifeless as this multi-million pound production.

Rating: 1.5/5

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