Not much more than another raunchy, adolescent boys-out-on-the-town farrago, even if the boys are dressed in animal skins and the town is Sodom.
Year One (2009)
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.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.
Runtime: 3 hrs 17 mins
Genre: Comedies
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'... 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' comedy Year One. Harold Ramis directs. The screenplay is by Harold Ramis & Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg (The Office) from a story by Harold Ramis. The film is produced by Harold Ramis, Judd Apatow, and Clayton Townsend. --© Sony Pictures [More]
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria, Paul Rudd
Director: Harold Ramis
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriter: Harold Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg
Story: Harold Ramis
Producer: Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, Clayton Townshend
Composer: Theodore Shapiro
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Reviews for Year One
Need your fix of Black and Cera? We recommend renting School of Rock and Superbad instead of heading to the theater for this one.
It’s a potentially funny, tricky premise, and in the hands of someone as talented and slightly skewed as writer-director Harold Ramis and a pair of writers from The Office, it should have worked.
Ramis' best may be behind him, but luckily, Year One is not one of his worst.
The filmmaker imbues Year One with all the creative energy of a middling, time-filler Saturday Night Live skit.
If Harold Ramis' Year One were a bowling match, it would lurch between gutter balls and spares, with some scattered lucky strikes.
Year One is a horse designed by committee to make a camel, and Harold Ramis, as much as today’s comedy stars owe him, is an unadaptable species.
Year One is so dedicated to being historically accurate that it only uses jokes that are at least two thousand years old.
[Harold] Ramis and co-writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg mostly avoid the easy anachronism jokes, to their credit, but instead they wind up plumbing the depths of poop, fart, urine, foreskin and gay-panic humor.
Year One is a slapdash film in desperate need of more authoritative stewardship.
Black and Cera are caught in a witless Abbott-and-Costello situation...The comedy-team rhythms are there; the material is not.
An awkward bust, a raucous costume party held at a funeral, and the more it sinks lowbrow to obtain laughs, the easier it is to bid adieu to Harold Ramis as a trustworthy comedic filmmaker.
A pointless endeavor which eventually ends in a relatively half-hearted meander off screen.
Jack Black plays Bud Abbott to Michael Cera's Lou Costello in a movie about as relevant to today's audiences as the Abbott and Costello Show.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because you've seen this all before in Carl Gottliebs' "Caveman."
This is no masterpiece, but I'm really fond of Michael Cera. I think he's got something on screen that's very sweet.
Year One makes Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost look like a masterpiece.
Just like the stunt fudge on which Black chows down in his signature scene, Year One is unmistakably crap.
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. ![]()
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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