10,000 B.C.

Roland Emmerich attempts to revive the prehistoric adventure spectacle of yesteryear with modern special effects and a somewhat more historically accurate framework (no dinosaurs menace these cavemen, only mastodons and really big cats). This dawn of man odyssey follows a disgraced warrior (Steven Strait), from a band of dreadlocked hunter-gatherers, on the trail of slavers who have ravaged his tribe and kidnapped his blue-eyed sweetheart (Camilla Belle). Emmerich doesn't seem all that concerned over where this is actually taking place: Is it the Fertile Crescent? North Africa? The Russian Steppes? They seem to traverse more land in a few weeks than Alexander the Great did in seven years, and they invite the small tribes they meet to join their cause and form a proto-EU. You can check off the movies that director/co-writer Emmerich lifts for his big-budget "Teenage Caveman": "Quest for Fire," "Apocalypto" and "Spartacus," the desert crossing scene from "Lawrence of Arabia," even a ridiculous reworking of "Androcles and the Lion" with a saber-toothed tiger. But, ultimately, "10,000 B.C." most resembles Emmerich's own "Stargate," without the science fiction or the modern-day Marines. The prehistoric peoples, inspired by convenient prophecies and helped by supernatural seers, lead their own revolt against a decadent god-king. Shot in New Zealand, Namibia and South Africa, it offers magnificent landscapes for its one-dimensional heroes and villains and the best computer generated rampaging mastodon herds that money can buy, but the rest is a dull, dumb compendium of recycled adventure epic clichés.

The disc features very little in the way of supplements. The "exciting alternate ending" proclaimed on the disc case is notable only for giving narrator Omar Sharif a little screen time, and the 10 minutes of additional deleted scenes are mostly short, unmemorable bits shaved out of longer scenes. There is also a Blu-ray release.