The people who made Year One seem to think that all you have to do to make a hit comedy is get a bunch of jokesters together. But where are the jokes?
Comment
06/19/09
Year One (2009)
15
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:149
Fresh:23
Rotten:126
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
[The writers] appear to subscribe to the 'if it sort of works once, let's beat the audience over the head with it until we've driven the life out of the joke' philosophy.
06/19/09
Devoid of any energy or enthusiasm either in front of or behind the camera.
06/19/09
You heard it here first: Year One is the best prehistoric comedy of 2009.
06/19/09
If you haven't found yourself laughing during any of the commercials on television, then I assure you not a whole lot will change if you decide to swap your couch or recliner for a theater seat.
06/19/09
Harold Ramis' comedy is more evolved than the trailers let on, but after a solid hit to the popcorn audience's vestigial funny bone, the humor retreats into a lazy, generic swamp.
06/19/09
Year One is nowhere near as funny as the ancient-civilization movies I saw in high school: Life of Brian, History of the World Part I, Caligula. Its script isn't worth the papyrus it's inscribed on.
06/19/09
Has neither wit nor wisdom nor charm nor beauty.
06/19/09
This lame biblical/caveman jokefest fails to elict many laughs.
06/19/09
There is plenty of lowbrow, knuckle-dragging humor; coupled with all the gay jokes, poop jokes, Jewish jokes and you're-stupider-than-I-am jokes, the arrested-development crowd will no doubt be thoroughly entertained.
06/19/09
Top CriticBlack, who has been hilarious elsewhere, is working so hard to be funny that it’s exhausting.
06/19/09
An inexplicably unfunny comedy made by two people who have proven they can do much better: director/co-writer Harold Ramis and co-producer Judd Apatow.
06/19/09
It ambles along uncertainly, hobbled by the lack of chemistry between its two lead actors, and by gags that either try too hard or suffer from being barely there.
06/19/09
[A] sloppy, joke-poor mess of a pre-historical romp.
06/19/09
Stuffed full of comic bits that don't work.
06/19/09
Black and Cera posed in cave-man outfits for an amusing poster. Then the movie was brought forth and things went downhill.
06/19/09
Year One has one joke, but it's a good one, played for many variations over the course of an often very funny comedy.
06/19/09
Year One is a good short skit drawn out far, far too long, another big, dumb offering to the summer movie gods that is unlikely to appease or please anyone.
06/19/09
A thoroughly, sometimes gaggingly broad and sly conceptual laugh-in.
06/19/09
Top CriticNow, I know what you're thinking... any film featuring tribal girlfriends in animal skins and a trip to Sodom can't be all that bad. Well, trust me, it is.
06/19/09
Latest News for Year One
June 20, 2009:
Crude cavemen encounter Biblical events in raunchy road comedy. 
More...
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.
More...
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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