Crew
Director/Screenplay – Adam Rifkin, Producers – Carolyn Pfeiffer & Brad Wyman, Photography/Visual Effects Supervisor – Scott Billups, Music – Alex Wurman and His Cavemen (M.B. Gordy, Laura McLean & Phil Symonds), Visual Effects – Adam Clark, Gretchen McNelis & Pixelmonger, Special Effects Supervisor – Everett Byrom III, Production Design – Chris Stull. Production Company – Burnt Orange Productions/Brad Wyman Productions/Blump’s International Pictures.
Cast
Adam Rifkin (Ishbo), Ali Larter (Fardart), Hayes MacArthur (Thudnik), David Carradine (Mookoo/Uncle Unky), Cole McKeel (Ishbo at 12 Yrs.), William A. Tyree (Old Fool), Gary Busey (Krutz), Carol Alt (Queen Fallopia), Talia Shire (Ishbo’s Mother), Miles Dougal (Zog), Giuseppe Andrews (Zig), Courtney Herron (Fardart at 12 Yrs.), Ron Jeremy (Oog), Lin Shaye (Museum Guide)
Plot
Ishbo is a member of a prehistoric tribe, the younger son of the chief Mookoo. Ishbo regularly comes up with ideas and inventions for bettering their way of life but is always shouted down and regarded as an idiot. Ishbo has had a crush on Fardart since they were children but has no experience in ‘clubbing’ – hitting a woman over the head with a club and dragging her away. Fardart is then clubbed by Ishbo’s older brother Thudnik, a complete moron who is presumed the next leader of the tribe. War is looming with the neighbouring tribe of Binadraks. When Fardart is abducted by the Binadraks, nobody seems to care and so it is left to Ishbo to go and rescue her.
Director Adam Rifkin first appeared with a couple of minor comedies, including directing the trashy The Invisible Maniac (1990) under a pseudonym and then the very strange, almost culty The Dark Backward (1991) under his own name. Rifkin subsequently went onto make a variety of mainly comedies, as well as the odd genre item like Psycho Cop Returns (1993) and the Wadzilla segment of Chillerama (2011). His most notable directorial work was the modestly successful Detroit Rock City (1999). He has also made the bizarrely funny mockumentary Welcome to Hollywood (1998) in which he tries to turn an unknown actor into a star and an even stranger documentary Giuseppe Makes a Movie (2014) about an underground filmmaker, the completely whacked meta-fictional stalker film Director’s Cut (2016) and Burt Reynolds’ last film The Last Movie Star (2017). Rifkin’s greatest successes however are as a screenwriter for films such as MouseHunt (1997), Small Soldiers (1998), Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006), Underdog (2007) and Knucklehead (2010), while he has also produced Willy’s Wonderland (2021). In Homo Erectus, Rifkin also plays the lead character of the bespectacled caveman Ishbo.
Homo Erectus was one of the films released under the National Lampoon banner. National Lampoon (1970-98) was the satirical American magazine in its day, contrived with a sense of black and frequently deeply offensive humour. The magazine then lent their name to the hit film National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), after which a whole host of films bearing the National Lampoon name were spun out, the most well known of which was the Chevy Chase-starring National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) and sequels. (See below for the other National Lampoon films).
The prehistoric comedy has been around since around The Flintstones (1960-6) and there have been live-action variants such as Caveman (1981) and Year One (2009) and other animated offerings like The Croods (2013) and Early Man (2018). Homo Erectus could be considered a modern version of Caveman, albeit with much more of a cruder and raunchier focus. (For a more detailed listing of caveman dramas see Prehistory).
Rifkin starts things off with a predictable parody of the bone sequence 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – one where the bone flies up in slow motion accompanied by music and promptly comes down and hits another tribe member on the head. Homo Erectus has a really goofy stupid sense of humour – and is unapologetic about it. It is also quite crude and rude – there is an ongoing joke that plays throughout about the men of the tribe ‘clubbing’ ie. hitting women over the head and dragging them away. When we meet the Amazon women, there are frequently topless, but also wear ridiculous oversized merkins. If nothing else, it is a film that at least is determined to live up to raucous comedy associated with the National Lampoon label.
Rifkin’s character wears a pair of round glasses throughout so we are not exactly in the realm of a film pretending to be believable. And there are a lot of cultural in-jokes and asides a la The Flintstones – a prehistoric bong pipe or where Rifkin does prehistoric stand-up replete with microphone at one point. One of the other ongoing gags is how Rifkin’s character is frequently coming up with inventions like trousers and a sunshade and is the most sensible and practical-headed in the tribe but is constantly being told he is an idiot and or being whanged over the head by the rest of the tribe. This does unfortunately lead to an ending where Ishbo’s creativity and brightness, something that would lead to an underdog eventually triumphs plot in another film, indeed did in ‘Caveman, ends in a rather sad sack downer of an ending.
The other National Lampoon films are:- National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982), National Lampoon’s Movie Madness (1983), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), National Lampoon’s Class of 86 (1986), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), National Lampoon’s True Facts (1992), National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon I (1993), National Lampoon’s Attack of the 5’2″ Woman (1994), National Lampoon’s Last Resort (1994), National Lampoon’s Favorite Deadly Sins (1995), National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995), National Lampoon’s The Guys (1996), National Lampoon’s Dad’s Week Off (1997), National Lampoon’s The Don’s Analyst (1997), National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation (1997), National Lampoon’s Golf Punks (1998), National Lampoon’s Men in White (1998), National Lampoon’s American Adventure (2000), National Lampoon Presents Repli-Kate (2002), National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure (2003), National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze (2003), National Lampoon’s Lady Killers (2003), National Lampoon’s Thanksgiving Family Reunion (2003), National Lampoon’s Greek Games (2003), National Lampoon’s Going the Distance (2004), National Lampoon’s Lost Reality (2004), National Lampoon’s Adam and Eve (2005), National Lampoon’s Cattle Call (2005), National Lampoon’s Lost Reality 2: More of the Worst (2005), National Lampoon’s Pledge This (2005), National Lampoon’s Teed Off (2005), National Lampoon’s The Trouble with Frank (2005), National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2 (2006), National Lampoon’s Pucked (2006), The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell (2006), National Lampoon’s TV: The Movie (2006), National Lampoon’s Bag Boy (2007), National Lampoon’s Spring Break (2007), National Lampoon’s The Stoned Age (2007), National Lampoon’s College Road Trip (2008), National Lampoon’s Ratko: The Dictator’s Son (2009), National Lampoon: When Old People Attack (2009), National Lampoon’s 301 (2011), National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie (2011), National Lampoon’s Snatched (2011) and National Lampoon’s Surf Party (2013).
Trailer here