The caveman film. So ridiculous, so kitschy, so irresistibly watchable. The release this week of 10,000 B.C. serves to remind that this debased genre - down there at the bottom of the film food chain with slasher flicks and teen sex comedies - has been with us for decades and shows no signs of going the way of the Neanderthal. 

Think Clan of the Cave Bear. Or Encino Man. It soon becomes obvious that the terms "Oscar-winning cinema" and "caveman flick" are mutually exclusive (so maybe 1981's Quest for Fire won an Oscar for best makeup. It sure didn't win any awards from Cro-Magnon historians). Which is probably why the creators of 10,000 B.C. have called it "a sweeping odyssey into a mythical age of prophecies and gods."