L'Homme des cavernes

If you're in the mood for some dumb fun, try this. Take the old Raquel Welch vehicle, One Million BC, and make it even sillier and campier, and you get this fun nonsense. A goofy parody of dinosaur films, this flick never takes itself the slightest bit seriously.

Ringo Starr shows some surprising smarts for acting and comedy, playing a cross between Woody Allen and Barney Rubble. Except no talking: just grunts. A lot of grunts. Everybody in the cast grunts. No dialogue is necessary, anyway, the endless sight gags and slapstick bits tell you what little you need to know about the plot. The plot goes something like this: Ringo goofs up and is banished from his tribe. He and Dennis Quaid (Fred to Starr's Barney)wander around encountering odd Jurassic adventures. Look for Tickle Me Elmo's prehistoric ancestors, bug eyes, screeching high pitched noises, short arms, and all; they are definitely a highlight. The cast all seem to having a blast doing the movie, and the fun comes through on the screen. Shelly Long, John Matuszak, Jack Gilford and all the rest make for a good comedic time. There's all the usual dino dung and other similar type jokes, but they work in this movie.

An exuberant cast, a clever script, and some outrageous sight gags make for cool some modern stone aged entertainment. Just turn your brain cell activity down to the "Sub-Neanderthal" level while watching.

Ex-Beatle Starr joins a jock and some real actors in this zany stone age romp. I suppose the ringed one will never be a top actor but I always enjoy his films. This stuff was so goofy it kept me in stitches the whole time. Solid fun with loads of laughs.

Like airline disaster movies, one staple of 1970's cinema that was ripe for spoofing was the sub-genre of pre-historic melodrama influenced by "Korg: 1,000,000 B.C."(1966). Enter, "Caveman," a movie as willing to stick it to this genre as "Airplane!"(1980) was willing to do so to the Airport series, and countlessly similar movies and made-for-TV movies. You won't exactly find humor on the level of Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Young Ones, or Daria here, but it's still good for some laughs.

Atouk(Ringo Starr) has a huge crush on his tribal leader's wife Lana(Barbara Bach), but even if he didn't he's severely mistreated by Tonda(John Matousak), just because he can do so. Tonda is a huge thug who'd rather allow his fellow tribe-members to get eaten by numerous dinosaurs(which they call "Machas"), than try to save them. After he tries to "zug-zug" with Lana, he's kicked out of the tribe, and on the way finds Lar(Dennis Quaid) who was previously left to die after being injured fleeing a Macha.

Along the way they run into Tala(Shelly Long) and her blind father, Gog(Jack Gilford) who nearly drowns in a tar pit until Atouk and Lar save him. Tala immediately falls for Atouk, but he's not interested, which is a shame because she was gorgeous. Shelley Long has never looked as good as she does here. If I were in Atouk's position, I'd dump my aloonda for Lana and zug-zug Tala till she screamed like a Macha, and perhaps even afterwards. Evan Kim is interesting as Nook, the leader of the much more articulate cavemen, who are NOT all WASP heterosexuals of normal size, and and decides to join Atouk and his growing clan as they team up to eventually battle Tonda and his clan for both Ool(food) and pride. Atouk is admired by many other primitive people he comes across, partially because he discovers fire, chiropractic medicine, hallucinogenic plants, and rhythm, which is why Starr is perfect for the role.

The big disappointment here is the fact that the DVD has no translation card of the primitive language, which was originally offered to patrons of the movie when it was first released. At least they could've made a translation section as one of the special features. Other than that it was as silly as hell, and well worth seeing.

Some movies are to be taken serious, this is not one of them. It's a comical look at prehistoric life. It's not supposed to be accurate in historic detail, it's supposed to make you laugh and this movie did just that. Ringo Starr is great as the unlikely hero Atouk and his wife at the time, Barbara Bach plays the sexy prehistoric temptress wonderfully. Watch for scenes with Shelley Long and Dennis Quaid and you get a glimpse of their early careers.

I had pretty low expectations when I first saw this movie. I then found it hilariously funny. Some of the humor is a little juvenile, but the "caveman" language (developed by Ringo Starr himself ... I think he claimed once on the Tonight Show that his favorite word was "zug-zug," which meant "having sex") was great; also an amusing scene where the cavemen who speak this language meet a caveman who speaks English and tries to teach it to them.

Not to mention dumb dinosaurs, a humungous mosquito, Atouk's (Ringo Starr) pile of unappreciated inventions, and Lana's (Bach) come-uppance at the end.

Good, mindless fun.