I’m not trying to be unkind when I say that Jack Black and Michael Cera hardly ever stray from their comfort zones when it comes to their comedy roles. Black has been sporting those overactive eyebrows and the childish bravado of a wannabe rocker for a long time now, and Cera is still getting away with that sweet, squirmy, adolescent awkwardness. It seems like superb casting to throw this odd couple together in a buddy flick. But Year One, a lazy jaunt through the stories of the Old Testament with Black and Cera leading the way, is a disappointment of biblical proportions.

Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) are a couple of no-hopers in a primitive hunter-gathering tribe who can’t even get the women to lay with them. When Zed partakes in the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, hoping for divine wisdom, he is banished from the village. With Oh joining him, Zed embarks on a journey of discovery.

What they discover, in fact, is a parade of US comedy cameos. David Cross and Paul Rudd appear first as the quarrelling brothers Cain and Abel (in the first funny moments of the film that weren’t pilfered for the trailer). Then there’s Abraham, played by Hank Azaria (in gravelly tones not too dissimilar from his Moe Szyslak voice), who is in the middle of sacrificing his son Isaac, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and has a thing for circumcision. Bill Hader also pops up as a shaman, Kyle Gass (Jack Black’s other half from Tenacious D) is a palace eunuch and Oliver Platt is the high priest that takes a liking to Oh.

Zed and Oh’s journey climaxes in Sodom, an ancient precursor for that other city of sin (“What transpires within the confines of the wall of Sodom, stays within the confines of the wall of Sodom”).

Black himself described Year One as being in the spirit of Monty Python, and there are certainly moments reminiscent of Life Of Brian: a stoning sequence, a Roman leader addressing a chanting rabble, and fake beards as far as the eye can see. What Black probably means though is that Year One is much more like a series of skits (with a Judeo-Christian theme) than a typical comedy, and he’s right – but these skits are very patchy and very sloppily tied together, and there’s very little enjoyment in being taken along for the cart-ride. And, as I alluded to earlier, even Black and Cera are tiresome in this mess.

It’s a soiled loincloth of a script from writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (from the US Office), who should know better. Quite apart from how weak the story is, it’s dismaying how comprehensively the film resorts to scatological humour: it’s a barrage of fart gags, poo gags, wee gags and dick gags (a category itself comprised of its own subcategories: foreskin gags, testicle gags). No gags about the nuances of Latin grammar here, and all a bit dull for anyone older than 11. Director Harold Ramis should know better too, beating out a lot of the potential for humour with confusing cuts between and during scenes, and generally mismanaging the wealth of comedic talent on board.

Year One falls way short of the sublime ridiculousness of its title. Comedy lovers, turn around, walk away, and don’t look back, or you’ll turn into a pillar of stupid.

Year One opens in cinemas on Thursday (June 18).
You can view the Year One movie trailer here on TheVine.