Year One

Year One

Year One - Directed by Harold Ramis, starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, and David Cross - Rated PG-13




I'll try not to make this a regular thing, but I was torn between Commodus and Kurgan with this one.



Year One is the movie that looks like a caveman movie based on its previews, but is really a comedic retelling of biblical stories. It’s about Oh (Cera) and Zed (Black), two hunter/gatherers on a trek to find their place in the biblical world, and hopefully hook up with beautiful women along the way. I hadn’t really planned on watching Year One in the theater, but it was playing locally and I had nothing better to do. It’s no masterpiece, but I certainly don’t consider it a waste of money. The referential jokes dealing with hunter/gatherer societies and bible stories like Cain and Abel are more miss than hit, but when they hit, they are quite funny. It’s just that so many miss and miss hard. But in the long run, I remember the funny moments and the misses don’t stick out so much. But that might just be because there are so many of them.



Quite a bit of this movie depends on the actors and I must say that Jack Black and Michael Cera save it. If you’re a fan of Jack Black, then you’ll probably like him in this. I know that some people have issues with him, but he’s actually a little toned down in this one which allowed him to work better with Cera. Michael Cera gets on my nerves in most of his roles lately. I liked him in Superbad, but when he started playing that character over and over again I got tired of it very quickly. I don’t know what it is, but I enjoyed him in this. I actually found him funnier than Jack Black. Maybe it’s that his character type works better in an unlikely environment. Either way, both leads worked for me in this one.

Year One is incredibly stupid throughout, but there are worse movies out there. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, though. There were some lengthy stretches in which I didn’t laugh and that’s never good when you’re watching a comedy. But some of the bigger laughs (like Michael Cera being in the awkward situation of needing to urinate while hanging upside down) even it out. I would say that most people need to wait for the DVD for this one.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Last updated: 2010-05-10 11:42:59 by user06

Year One: Movie Review

Even without the hype of most comedies released in the past few months, “Year One” is still one of the films we were looking forward to seeing because of the Jack Black-Michael Cera team up. We were curious how hilarious this film would be especially that these two actors have different styles when it comes to cracking up the audience. Jack Black has proven his comedic prowess over and over through his silly antics, dancing tricks and witty line delivery. Michael Cera’s charm on the other hand works as he portrays a more subdued comedy – always the innocent, nerdy, schoolboy-ish character. Would they even mix well? Read after the jump.

The setting is in a prehistoric village where Zed (Jack Black) finds himself disliked by the village people as he appears to be a very useless hunter. After getting kicked out of the village, Oh (Michael Cera) decides to come with him and the two embark on an adventure to discover a world apart from their small tribe. They meet Old Testament characters along the way namely Cain, Abel, Abraham and Isaac. They find out that their old tribe members are bought and taken to Sodom as slaves. They must now rescue their old pals before the wrath of God falls upon Sodom.

We aren’t exactly angry with how the movie turned out because we’ve seen far worse movies than this. However, we couldn’t fully describe how much a failure this movie is for us. First, it is a far waste of talent. The two actors are as always brilliant but they can only do so much with poor material. There are very few instances wherein they made us laugh out loud but there were definitely more times wherein we laughed out of frustration. Second, we couldn’t believe how Harold Ramis allowed very bad writing to come into play. After all, he is the brilliant mind behind “Groundhog Day”! Maybe he ran out of ideas? No one can tell. The biblical-themed storyline had a lot of potential but you might just end up just wishing that you just stayed at home and watched HBO instead.

Rating: 2 reels

Why you should watch it:
- good acting as always from Jack Black and Michael Cera. They had good chemistry going on between them
- you might enjoy the spoof of the Old Testament characters and events

Why you shouldn’t watch it:
- very lame script; the two could do much more if only given good material
- waste of time and money

(Read Less...)

Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-12 03:51:25 by user06

year one

stoner comedy of the year.  so far.  of course maybe i can’t recall the last good stoner movie….but anyway, this thing is pretty funny.  jack black and michael cera are idiot cave men like people who are such screw ups the essentially get kicked out of thier tribe and go on what the movie trailer calls the first road trip.

i’m pretty sure there are some serious historical inaccuracies, but who cares.  it’s funny to watch them come across cain and abel fighting in a field.  and it’s even funnier to watch cain follow them on thier adventure.  cain is played by david cross in easily his best role since arrested development.  he tries to be their friend one minute, then sells them into slavery the next.  it’s all quite funny.

this movie is just a good time.  catch a little buzz before you watch it if you want.  you’ll be fine.  you’ll laugh.  a lot.  as far as overall funny goes, it’s probably neck and neck with land of the lost, which i thought was pretty funny.  it’s in a different class though than the hangover.  the hangover is probably the outright funniest movie of the year.  but you won’t be disappointed with year one.  unless you don’t like jack black or michael cera.  then you won’t be watching this movie anyway.

if you’re looking for soemthing funny to go see this weekend and have already seen the hangover.  go see year one.  if you’ve not seen the hangover.  go see the hangover.  but i’ll buy year one when i find it in the 4 for 20 bin at blockbuster.  i give this movie three caveman loin clothes out of five.

Cal Reed

Year One

"Year One", written and directed by Harold Ramis (he also did Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Vacation, Groundhog Day...comedies people actually like watching) is a horrible excuse for a movie. It has a great cast including Jack Black, Michael Cera, Hank Azaria, David Cross, Oliver Platt, and Paul Rudd. And every single one of them was completely wasted in this horrible attempt at a comedy. "Year One" is an insult to your intelligence and is, simply put, complete garbage and a torture I wish on no one.

This is a "road" movie about a hunter and a gatherer, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera). They are kicked out of their tribe and meet several people from the Bible. And I'm assuming something actually happens, although honestly I'm not sure...someone wrote this script in like 20 minutes, and with no sleep apparently...oh yeah...they do end up in Sodom...and slavery is involved...and the 2 guys try to get 2 girls to like them...

The movie is pretty sacrilegious - making fun of Biblical occurances like Cain murdering Abel, etc. "Year One" is also full of humor that seems to be geared towards kindergarteners perhaps. Yes, Jack Black eats bear feces, Michael Cera urinates on himself, people get circumcised, and we are supposed to somehow laugh at this embarrassing mess.

The good parts of this movie?...um the ending credits when the suffering, sacrilegious, and juvenile jokes were finally over (It is kind of hard to fathom how much I despise this movie...). I did like Hank Azaria (Abraham) actually; somehow he took a horrible, awful attempt at a script and made it relatively amusing - his lines anyways...other peoples' lines were beyond his control.

0 stars....yeah, kind of like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Don't ever watch this movie...ever...if you want to laugh anyway...if you want to watch it and ponder what was going through everyone's heads when they accepted part in this joke of a movie than go for it and rent it for a buck. One of the worst movies of the year...and I've seen over 20

(Read Less...)

Moon Minis - Year One

Last updated: 2010-01-19 00:56:07 by user01

Year One

Comedies set in prehistoric times are oft-time surefire hits and comedy gold. I don’t know if I can say that Year One is a hit, but it does make an attempt. 
Jack Black is one of those actors/comedians that people either love or hate. For me, I can tolerate him, but I don’t particularly like or dislike him. His antics work here, though, as his character is one of those clumsy types that fouls up everything without knowing it.
Michael Cera honestly needs to find someway to stop playing the same character in every film. Don’t get me wrong, the lovable, soft-spoken loser that gets everything piled on him, and then comes out at the end smelling like roses, works for him, but he seems to play the same character in every single film he’s in. Pretty soon these roles are going to dry up and he’ll end up working at McDonald’s or something, which would be a shame because I think he has potential to be so much more.
David Cross is his usual annoying character that double crosses everyone. That may be why he was chosen to play Abel.
In a film about cavemen, you know there has to be some nice candy, right? Well, we have  June Raphael as Maya, who ends up with Jack Black and Eema ends up with Michael Cera…ironically her real name is Juno. There is also the super sexy Olivia Wilde later in the film, but they have so much makeup on her that it takes away her hotness, in my opinion.
I got a little confused with this picture. They start out in what appears to be prehistoric times and the next thing we know they’re talking to Cain and Abel, then Abraham and Isaac, then they end up in Sodom. WTF?!? Pick a time and stick with it! The movie is called Year One, so why not stick to that. Skipping around through time like this has been done before in a little picture called History of the World, pt. 1 ( a better film, in my opinion).
Year One  is not without its faults, but that doesn’t mean that its a total waste of time to watch. Sure, you could better with Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Pt. 1, but don’t count this one out. Unless you’re one of those people who finds one or more of these actors annoying (for me, its David Cross, but I can deal with it, unlike some people), then I think you’ll be entertained by most of the film. Its one of the few comedies these days that remembers its a comedy all the way through and doesn’t try to become a drama…although, it does attempt to be an action flick, but even that is done in a comedic way.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

(Read Less...)