Year One seems destined to earn the dubious distinction of being the one movie released in the summer of 2009 that made another trapped-in-time adventure, Land of the Lost, seem like a masterpiece by comparison.
Comment
06/19/09
Year One (2009)
15
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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
When did comedy writing become such a lost art, replaced by the improvisational byplay of talented but increasingly familiar players left to think up funny lines for an amusing situation?
06/18/09
Often drags and should have been retitled as The NeverEnding, Painfully Unfunny Story. It falls on its face both a comedy and as a satire with a lazy, asinine and mean-spirited script. Even the outtakes don't induce any real laughs.
06/18/09
It's a bit flabby and careless, but it's also gleefully stupid, and it has the ability to knock you off guard and make you giggle helplessly.
06/18/09
Instead of anything clever or original as one might expect from Harold Ramis; we're subjected to gross-out jokes. Note to Mr. Ramis; the Fountain of Comedy Youth is probably not located in a sewer.
06/18/09
Parental Content Review
06/18/09
"Year One" is the kind of stuff Mel Brooks would have whipped up back in the day -- and, frankly, whipped through in about a half-hour.
06/18/09
Harold Ramis...serves up some low brow humor in a fitful script, but his film is elevated into the ranks of pleasurably stupid humor by terrific comic turns from Cera and a game Oliver Platt
06/18/09
Mostly Year One moves along ploddingly, stepping frequently into bathroom humor and never quite funny enough to justify its high concept; when it's over, it quickly slips away.
06/18/09
A lowbrow, only fitfully amusing comedy.
06/18/09
If you can't take this premise and these actors and come up with anything funnier than Jack Black eating poop, then you have no business making comedies.
06/18/09
Year One is scattershot and silly, squandering its potential by relying on juvenile bawdy humor.
06/18/09
On paper, Ramis and producer Apatow set themselves up for success: The cast is a who's who of funnymen. Unfortunately, the script doesn't give them a whole lot to work with.
06/18/09
The problem with Year One is that all the best jokes have been used in the promos.
06/18/09
06/18/09
Year One is a dreary experience, and all the ending accomplishes is to bring it to a close. Even in the credit cookies, you don't sense the actors having much fun.
06/18/09
Top CriticAny good will the movie generates is grated right back off by Black, whose obnoxiousness has lost whatever charm it once possessed.
06/18/09
Ramis' challenge in Year One, which he wrote with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, is to keep the vibe loose while delivering the laughs. They come in fits and starts.
06/18/09
Year One -- a film so simple-minded that even a caveman could have written it. Or could have directed it …
06/18/09
The actors make a surprisingly effective comic team, with Black's manic energy trampolining off Cera's deflated passivity.
06/18/09
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...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds