The film is lumpy and self-conscious, the dialogue not very witty.
Comment
07/10/09
Year One (2009)
19
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:5
Rotten:21
Average Rating:4/10
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.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jun 18, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $43,337,279
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
1 - 19 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticYear One is an enjoyable knockabout comedy, but as a satire on human folly it's a disappointment; Ramis could have gone much further underlining the parallels between ancient and modern religious wars.
06/21/09
Top CriticCut it into small pieces and many bits are a giggle: string them all together and it starts to wear thin. Strangely for Ramis, it's not aggressive enough.
06/19/09
Top CriticThis is no masterpiece, but I'm really fond of Michael Cera. I think he's got something on screen that's very sweet.
06/17/09
Top CriticYear One makes Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost look like a masterpiece.
06/17/09
Top CriticJust like the stunt fudge on which Black chows down in his signature scene, Year One is unmistakably crap.
06/17/09
Top CriticThe story feels like the pitch developed during a long drinking session — what would you get if you took one of the great comedic filmmakers of the 1980s and put him together with Apatow's Superbad generation?
06/17/09
Top CriticDirector Harold Ramis knows enough about comedy to keep things ticking over nicely. That said, there's something undeniably lazy and tossed off about Year One: everyone feels like they're cruising.
06/16/09
Top CriticHas its moments — especially Black and Cera's knockabout pairing — but Year One sidesteps greatness by allowing too much filler and swill to plug the gaps.
06/15/09
Top CriticTargeting with surgical precision the teenage market with a keenly juvenile sense of humour, Year One brings together every manner of silliness that can be crammed into the concept.
06/15/09
Top CriticAll hail Michael Cera, worker of unprecedented movie miracles! The 21-year-old Canadian comic takes a weak concept and some weaker material and, wherever possible, adds some much needed flashes of comedic genius.
07/03/09
Top CriticUnless you pine for second-tier Mel Brooks, you’ll find more laughs in the Old Testament itself.
06/26/09
Top CriticI expected more from veteran comic filmmaker Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Analyze That), who does little with the loss of innocence idea, and doesn't really find the laughs to make the premise go the distance.
06/21/09
Top CriticThere 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 CriticA thoroughly, sometimes gaggingly broad and sly conceptual laugh-in.
06/19/09
Top Critic[Ramis] does little with the loss of innocence idea, and doesn't really find the laughs to make the premise go the distance.
06/19/09
Top CriticA lowbrow, only fitfully amusing comedy.
06/18/09
Top CriticYear One is scattershot and silly, squandering its potential by relying on juvenile bawdy humor.
06/18/09
Top CriticYear 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 CriticAn amiable stroll through biblical times featuring Jack Black and Michael Cera as exiled Neanderthals, Year One lacks seismic guffaws but elicits many mild smiles.
06/17/09
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Latest News for Year One
June 20, 2009:
Crude cavemen encounter Biblical events in raunchy road comedy. 
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June 19, 2009:
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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.
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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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