‘Year One’ wants to be seen as a freeform, knockabout trawl through Biblical history, perfect for an undemanding Saturday night. There are only two problems: it’s kind of dull and just isn’t funny.
Comment
07/03/09
Year One (2009)
15
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:23
Rotten:127
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Year One is a poorly executed, slapdash comedy in which the talent both in front of and behind the camera never seem to be on the same page.
Theatrical Release:26-06-2009
Synopsis: When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world in Columbia Pictures'... [More]
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross
Director: Harold Ramis
Reviews for Year One
Top CriticAll hail Michael Cera, worker of unprecedented movie miracles! The 21-year-old Canadian comic takes a weak concept and some weaker material and, wherever possible, adds some much needed flashes of comedic genius.
07/03/09
Top CriticToo silly to be smart, too timid to be subversive about religion — it’s hard to believe it’s directed and co-written by the once great Harold Ramis
07/03/09
Made with such laziness of invention that everyone involved deserves a whack on the head with a club.
07/03/09
This gambit is a catastrophic failure. Cera’s loveable puppy-dog schtick is already tired, and Black can no longer carry a dud with likeability and energy alone. As for Ramis, well, perhaps he’s not the Messiah after all.
07/03/09
Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that a comedy about a couple of cavemen trades in primitive humour, still it's tough to imagine even the most monkey-brained of filmgoers getting a kick out of Year One.
07/03/09
Twenty times longer than its (excellent) trailer, and with about the same number of decent jokes, this underachieving effort boasts another brilliant Michael Cera performance, plus Jack Black licking a turd. Or is he polishing it?
07/03/09
A script this lousy should never have gone into production, and should have been abandoned as soon as anyone with any influence witnessed the rushes. The final result is a disgrace to everyone involved. Please God, let there be no Year Two.
07/03/09
Comprised of jokes that wouldn't amuse a five-year-old, and looking as if it was knocked together over a weekend, Year One delivers about as many laughs as I Spit On Your Grave.
07/03/09
A goodhearted, sometimes funny spoof of early human history.
07/03/09
Ramis has got his comic premise, but instead of constructing a plot, he and his co-writers work up only some feeble vignettes.
07/03/09
The jokes are obvious and tend towards the scatological. The rambling dialogue also makes this an endurance test. Year One, Audience Enjoyment Nil.
07/03/09
Wit occasionally gets a look-in but it isn’t often, while Black’s ebullient over-playing and Cera’s nervy wimpishness make a partnership that often seems about to make you laugh.
07/03/09
There's no reason to see Year One, at all. Consign this cack to the history books. Pronto.
07/03/09
This is every bit as disastrous as that other jungle-based comedy - when Peter met Katie on I'm A Celebrity.
06/27/09
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06/26/09
Top CriticUnless you pine for second-tier Mel Brooks, you’ll find more laughs in the Old Testament itself.
06/26/09
Top CriticThe filmmakers and cast find a few great laughs in this flimsy premise, but the whole film is so underdeveloped that it hardly seems to be up there on screen at all.
06/25/09
The big, blustery physical comedy of Jack Black makes for an amusing fit with Michael Cera’s quiet, self-deprecating humour in Year One.
06/19/09
The problem is not the historicity, or lack thereof, in a comedy, but the uneven pace of the humor.
12/06/09
Latest News for Year One
June 20, 2009:
Crude cavemen encounter Biblical events in raunchy road comedy. 
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June 19, 2009:
The Friday Harvest: This Week's Best Pictures, Posters, and Video
Happy Friday Harvest, a weekly round-up of the best pictures, posters, and videos that have become available for viewing/download on Rotten Tomatoes. Each section features the... More...
June 18, 2009:
Black's biggest idiot in the village, overly flirty heathen turned moronic messiah tries to hunt and gather copious hairy bodied babes who really know how to stroke their spears, while a shackled Cera pees upside down through his collar.
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June 18, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Proposal and Year One Bring More Laughs
Five of the top six films are comedies right now but Hollywood believes that's not enough so two new laughers open on Friday to give moviegoers even more options. Sandra Bullock... More...
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