Critic Reviews
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J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Creatively it's a giant step backwards, with Jack Black and Michael Cera playing to the kids as inept hunter-gatherers who stumble across various Old Testament characters.
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Tom Huddlestone, Time Out
'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.
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Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
For all its unevenness, the film is blessed by its lead actors.
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Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies
[Year One has] some very funny moments but not enough of them.
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Ben Lyons, At the Movies
This is a significant notch below the great Monty Python films that tackled religion with intelligence and wit.
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Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
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?
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Ali Gray, TheShiznit.co.uk
Stretched painfully thin to feature length, it's a concept that's gestated for 34 years but hasn't evolved a microbe. It also proves that the Harold Ramis of '09 has nothing on the Harold Ramis of '75.
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Joshua Starnes, ComingSoon.net
Dudley Moore once made a pretty forgettable comedy giving various well-worn bible stories a light irony wash by reacting to them with the skepticism and confusion a person of today might. Year One is basically that, but dumber.
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Simon Foster, sbs.com.au
From its ill-concieved concept to its timing-free chemistry and embarrassingly-bad characterisations, Year One is a major misfire in every respect.
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Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews
a lazy excrescence of a film. Crude, sloppy, flat, and singularly uninspired, its only redeeming virtue is proving that Michael Cera is capable of rising above even this abominable material
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Sam Bathe, Fan The Fire
Only big fans of Cera and Black need catch this film, and even then, it's far from a must-see.
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Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
What's even more depressing than the never-ending stream of sub-sixth-grade toilet humor is the sad fact that Year One is helmed and co-produced by two of the best laughmeisters in the business.
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Tom Meek, Boston Phoenix
Not everything Judd Apatow touches is gold.
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James Rocchi, Common Sense Media
Old Testament meets old jokes in rough, unfunny comedy.
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Rubin Safaya, Cinemalogue.com
The problem is not the historicity, or lack thereof, in a comedy, but the uneven pace of the humor.
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Nick Rogers, Suite101.com
Producer Judd Apatow has gone from comedy gourmand to McDonald-izing in four years. And when in doubt, director Harold Ramis makes Jack Black eat his own feces and Michael Cera pee in his own mouth. Yes, this is at the level of YouTube monkey comedy.
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James Plath, Movie Metropolis
Ramis was so enamored with the town of Sodom that he just couldn't bear to have his subjects leave. And that's where the film bogs down.
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James Plath, Movie Metropolis
This one is destined to take its place alongside films like Evan Almighty and Wholly Moses!.
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David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
As underwhelming as its buzz might have indicated...
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Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
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.
Read all 21 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Humor must be highly subjective. I didn't see this when it came out because it looked like it was "too high school" but I laughed myself sick watching it. I was choking. Never've been a fan of Black or Cera (though both do okay here) so I credit writer/director… More
Humor must be highly subjective. I didn't see this when it came out because it looked like it was "too high school" but I laughed myself sick watching it. I was choking. Never've been a fan of Black or Cera (though both do okay here) so I credit writer/director Ramis for making me laugh as haven't in 20 years ... thank you, Harold.
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It seems that Harold Ramis didn't know that putting Cera and Black is a big mistake, Jack way of expressing comedy is way to different to how Cera shows which really ruined it for me, critics and the general public who watched it.
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Year One is a terrible example of a comedy film, it has nothing but toilet humor and thats a sign of a crappy film. The plot is as pointless as they get, and another failure for Judd Apatow. The cast is crappy, one of the work jack Black films ever and Michael Cera is just here to… More
Year One is a terrible example of a comedy film, it has nothing but toilet humor and thats a sign of a crappy film. The plot is as pointless as they get, and another failure for Judd Apatow. The cast is crappy, one of the work jack Black films ever and Michael Cera is just here to be awkward. I hated this film and I am glad most people agree with me.
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Meet your ancestors
Saw it again! Pretty decent funny not boring movie. It was very entertaining and it was a trip just observing the past as they joke about it, hilarious!
Zed, a prehistoric would-be hunter, eats from a tree of forbidden fruit and is banished from his tribe,… More
Meet your ancestors
Saw it again! Pretty decent funny not boring movie. It was very entertaining and it was a trip just observing the past as they joke about it, hilarious!
Zed, a prehistoric would-be hunter, eats from a tree of forbidden fruit and is banished from his tribe, accompanied by Oh, a shy gatherer. On their travels, they meet Cain and Abel on a fateful day, stop Abraham from killing Isaac, become slaves, and reach the city of Sodom where their tribe is now enslaved. Zed and Oh are determined to rescue the women they love, Maya and Eema. Standing in their way is Sodom's high priest and the omnipresent Cain. Zed tries to form an alliance with Princess Innana, which may backfire. Can an inept hunter and a smart but slender and diffident gatherer become heroes and make a difference?
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Jack Black and Michael Cera together in a comedy movie. Im sorry but it just doesn't mix. Awful movie.
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Wow, this movie was crap. Everything is saturated with a stink of a crap movie. Horribly shot, horrible jokes, and an incredibly horrible attention to detail.
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Interesting and laughable (as in the bad jokes and acting) however some genuinely funny moments and a good accent from Wilde. A lot of effort went into the sets and costumes but that doesn't save the terrible editing and continuity.
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Didn't work right. Terrible film.
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Most everyone seems to crap all over this movie, and, as much as I don't like jumping on bandwagons, I can't help it with this one. This film is simply not funny. I think there was maybe one line. ONE that I found kind of funny. The rest of the film is just tired, dull dreck… More
Most everyone seems to crap all over this movie, and, as much as I don't like jumping on bandwagons, I can't help it with this one. This film is simply not funny. I think there was maybe one line. ONE that I found kind of funny. The rest of the film is just tired, dull dreck that is all over the place, and fails to form a cohesive whole that entertains.
This angers me. I love Harold Ramis,.so to see him responsible for this really is a shame. I don't know what the hell happened, but I sure hope he redeems himself sooner than later. Black and Cera don't make a good pair, and the respective styles are as ill-fitting as dtheir general chemistry. The cast is large and well known, but they aren't given anything good to work with, which is another great shame.
Avoid this one like the plague. It's simply not funny, terribly constructed and executed, and really pretty boring.
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Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but the fact that I "DVR'd" it off of one of the free cable movie channels helped.
I'm not a Jack Black fan...but he was not AS annoying in this film as he normally is. I would even go so far as to say, his stupidity… More
Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but the fact that I "DVR'd" it off of one of the free cable movie channels helped.
I'm not a Jack Black fan...but he was not AS annoying in this film as he normally is. I would even go so far as to say, his stupidity was actually rather endearing at times in this film.
And (while I'll admit he hasn't been given the opportunity to show much range....) I love Michael Cera and find him really funny and completely charming.
While it is not a film of side-splitting hilarity...it is funny and at times clever. The film as a whole is silly and ridiculous, but if you go into this kind of film (with a cast like this) expecting anything other then "silly and ridiculous",,,then you have no one to blame but yourself.
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A boring, unfunny comedy with a horrible cast and unnecessary cameos. Hank Azaria's 5 minutes on screen was better than the whole movie. This one you can skip, because if you rent this, you'll still walk out on it.
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A little history. I hate Jack Black ..or so I thought. I keep punishing him for School Of Rock, but I actually like just about all his other movies.
Anyway, this movie was surprising, I liked it. It was funny, had a fun cast and I dug the story of these two cavemen wondering around… More
A little history. I hate Jack Black ..or so I thought. I keep punishing him for School Of Rock, but I actually like just about all his other movies.
Anyway, this movie was surprising, I liked it. It was funny, had a fun cast and I dug the story of these two cavemen wondering around and seeing other cultures. It's a good time.
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Jack Black is pretty lousy in this movie, but the script writing and scenery are cool enough to keep me laughing and some hot chicks. I wasn't let down because I didn't expect it to be great.
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When it's funny, it's hilarious! The rest is utter awfulness. It has it's moments, but it feels like 5 hours. It is way too dragged out, and I would never recommend this movie to anyone unless they have seen everything they want to, and there are no movies left. I… More
When it's funny, it's hilarious! The rest is utter awfulness. It has it's moments, but it feels like 5 hours. It is way too dragged out, and I would never recommend this movie to anyone unless they have seen everything they want to, and there are no movies left. I can't believe I sat through this junk! Terrible!
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I was interested in seeing this from DAY one. Haha, funny funny. Seriously though, I don't get all the majorly negative reviews. Cera's okay, but Jack Black was very funny in this film, and there were some other funny parts (the farting escapade of Cera's bedmate). Oh… More
I was interested in seeing this from DAY one. Haha, funny funny. Seriously though, I don't get all the majorly negative reviews. Cera's okay, but Jack Black was very funny in this film, and there were some other funny parts (the farting escapade of Cera's bedmate). Oh well, I recommend seeing it if you like Jack Black or comedy movies.
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It was a great concept but the finished article is just a little disappointing and it feels like a missed opportunity. I realise it was just a silly comedy so I will let the historical inaccuracies pass this time.
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What kind of crap was that?
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I had heard so many horrible things about Year One, that I initially planned on skipping it all-together. It's been a while since I've seen a comedy be so universally panned by critics. But I simply couldn't ignore the fact that Olivia Wilde was in it. Olivia always… More
I had heard so many horrible things about Year One, that I initially planned on skipping it all-together. It's been a while since I've seen a comedy be so universally panned by critics. But I simply couldn't ignore the fact that Olivia Wilde was in it. Olivia always wins in the end.
I can see why a lot of people would not like it. The references to religion would probably turn some off, and it's not a "smart" comedy by any means. Then you have those people who are tired of (or never liked in the first place) Michael Cera and Jack Black. If you didn't like them in other movies, you won't like them here. The most glaring negative, though, is that a lot of the jokes fall horribly flat. Fart jokes? In 2009? Really?
But when a joke finally does work, it's a home-run. I laughed hysterically at least 5 times, and that made this movie worth the time investment, to me. Getting plenty of opportunities to ogle Juno Temple and Olivia didn't hurt, either. I couldn't care less about the "religious" aspects of the movie, and I certainly wasn't perturbed by the liberties the plot took with biblical history. It's just a silly movie, and I have no problems keeping things like that from offending my religious sensibilities.
Year One is by no means a comedy classic, but it's nowhere near what I consider to be horrible. I'm willing to admit that I probably enjoyed it more than it deserved, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I've watched much, much, MUCH worse comedies. Don't be afraid to rent it or check it out on TV, if you're interested.
Read all 20 featured audience ratings
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