"You make me laugh, but that's not enough," says Maya, played by June Diane Raphael, early in the biblical comedy, "Year One."

Score one for the women.

"Year One," directed by Harold Ramis of "Ghostbusters" and "National Lampoon Vacation" fame, portrays two caveguys bumbling through stories of the Old Testament. The movie achieves misogynistic and sophomoric undertones as it accomplishes what many comedies do best when they try to retell canonical literature: they butcher it.

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'Year One'

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

• Starring: Jack Black, Olivia Wilde and Michael Cera.
• Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, strong language and comic violence.
• Web site: www.yearone-movie.com

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The protagonists, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), live with about 60 other men and women in Eden about 30 or so years after the fall of Adam and Eve. Zed eats from the golden apples of the Tree of Knowledge, accidentally sets fire to their village, coaxes Oh to accompany him on a journey that begins as a quest to see what Oh calls the "spot where the world ends."

That journey ends quickly. Within five or so minutes, Zed and Oh see the far-reaching hills and woods that the audience sees in the opening shots. Apparently, the world doesn't end after a certain spot. They discover something that took other humans thousands of years to realize: The world isn't flat! By God, they're geniuses.

So what do they do for the remaining movie time? They witness the murder of Abel by Cain and meet biblical progenitors, Adam and Eve. They become enslaved and somehow meet Abraham, even though he was born about three or so centuries after Abel's death. They hang out in drought-plagued Sodom and meet homoerotic priests and hottie Princess Inanna (Olivia Wilde). Then Zed and Oh end the rule of the virginal-sacrifice-loving king, win the love of their cavegirl crushes, Maya (June Diane Raphael) and Eema (Juno Temple), and all is good.

Is there a plot in there?

I watch sophomoric comedies with the understanding that many times they are not striving for an Oscar. These movies, such as "The Hangover" and "Superbad," exceed my expectations. These movies tend to have a narrative arc.

I wish"Year One" was one of these movies.

But it's not without its merits. Indeed, the technical crews successfully enriched most scenes with vibrant colors and funky sounds.

And the movie does succeed in scoring laughs. Mr. Black's boastful and arrogant portrayal of Zed resembles his work in "School of Rock," while Mr. Cera's acting, honed by "Superbad" and "Juno," is adorable and cute -- if not, as many characters in the movie say, rather girly.

Many of the jokes had foundations in Genesis. For instance, the Bible tells us that Cain receives a mark by God as part of a curse to wander the earth for his fratricide. In the movie, after an ox-wagon high-speed chase across a few hundred feet, Cain (David Cross), having already killed Abel, suggests that God favors him. God then proceeds to strike his forehead with lightning.

Still, some jokes erred on the gratuitous. The awkward laughter between Zed and Oh when their crushes, Maya and Eema, suggested that God may not be a man was, at best, crude humor.

But perhaps the most amusing part of my "Year One" experience occurred in the movie theater. I watched the film Wednesday, during Pittsburgh's tornado-like storm. About 45 minutes after Cain was branded, lightning struck the movie theater, causing the scene -- where Oh is led to rub oil onto the high priest's chest hair -- to fizzle and melt off the screen.

Score one for God, too.