The film is lumpy and self-conscious, the dialogue not very witty.
Comment
07/10/09
Year One (2009)
15
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:151
Fresh:23
Rotten:128
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.
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
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 CriticThe problem is not the historicity, or lack thereof, in a comedy, but the uneven pace of the humor.
12/06/09
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.
12/03/09
This one is destined to take its place alongside films like Evan Almighty and Wholly Moses!.
10/10/09
The only thing that can be mustered up for the whole sorry enterprise is pity.
10/09/09
As underwhelming as its buzz might have indicated...
10/07/09
If there's anything sadder than an unfunny comedy, it's an unfunny comedy that tacks on an equally unfunny blooper reel over the closing credits.
08/31/09
[Year One] feels lazy: There's no cheap joke Mr. Ramis and company didn't go for, no gag-worthy gag they didn't include.
08/30/09
If there is any justice in the world, there will never be a Year Two.
08/11/09
... a near-total disappointment... it never manages to sustain any momentum from joke to joke or scene to scene or even shot to shot at times.
08/01/09
Boy, does this stink - and I mean almost literally.
07/15/09
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.
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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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