Year One (2009) English Movie

Year One (2009) English Movie
Year One is a 2009 comedy film starring  Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria  in lead roles and directed by Harold Ramis. Read the Critic’s review for the movie “Year One” at CacuttaTube.

Year One (2009) – A mediocre story made into an obnoxious film bubbling filled with filthy comedy. Year One may be an eventful journey, yet not a classic Odyssey!

A lame drama that starts with some humans not quite familiar with any blessings of civilizations- they are hunters and gatherers. It is a time in the past when they do not know the answers to natural phenomena – what happens to the sun at night or what lies beyond the hills, but have earned the maturity to raise these questions – if not all of the men, some of them certainly did. Interestingly, there stands a tree of wisdom with forbidden fruits in their ‘village’. This group abandon one of its people – the most unsmart one, named Zed (Jack Black) for the felony of eating the forbidden fruit. Zed’s pal Oh (Micheal Cera), is the other guy that the community has never care for, follows Zed in his exile – not out of friendship or compassion, but for a much prosaic reason. Oh’s dwelling place is burnt in a fire, and there is no place for him to leave. So, there goes the two most naive people their community has ever seen to explore a new world.

Year One Movie 2009

Genres: Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.
Release Date: June 19th, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria
Directed by: Harold Ramis
Produced by: Rodney Rothman, Harold Ramis, Judd Apatow

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The fruit has filled Zed with wisdom, at least he claims that he has become smart. He makes Oh ask him questions, but the forbidden fruit does not provide him any answers. These two men, no matter eaten the forbidden fruit or not, have already been full of human instincts. They desired women – Emma and Maya (Juno Temple, June Raphael) in their primitive group, and for Zed, anyone outside!

As they walk towards the unknown world, they see villages with people who have already discovered the art of cultivation, invented wheels and boats, and have settled in proper villages, and with further travel into new lands they see huge towns and cities, markets and ports – lands of dreams, hope, perversion and politics. The more civilized humans are, the more complications they are up to.

The primitive pair get motion sick from their ox-cart ride with Cain (David Cross), the first born son of Adam (Harold Ramis) and Eve (Rhoda Griffis), who they have witnessed to kill his brother Abel (Paul Rudd, uncredited). During their night stay at Adam’s place, Zed is sent to sleep with his young hostess, who is bound to be attractive in any man’s eyes, but finds herself attracted towards towards other women. And Oh shares bed with his other host – a creepy sick fart. The next day when the villagers find out about Cain killing Abel, he flees with this primitive pair.

On their way to the city of Sodom, Zed and Oh discover that their smarter fellow men and women have been made captives who will end up in being slaves. They follow their friends to Sodom – a huge city now suffering from draught. They royals say that the subjects do not have food, but that does not prevent them from dressing up gorgeously!! And the streets are thronged by people, where the shop-keepers selling food. Neither the mass, nor the class look weak, feeble or unfed in the slightest extent. The aristocratic family and the priests make sacrifice of human lives – virgin women – into the fire to satisfy the gods to get rain. Zed and Oh gather quite some experience in the city, fall in the eyes of the pretty princess, along that get into a lot of trouble. They have already been through a very eventful journey all way long, where they have meet the biblical character Abraham (HankAzaria) who is obsessed with circumcision. He chases Issac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) all over for his offering of a little bit of his foreskin, not much(!).

I wonder if Zed and Oh has just travelled across new lands, or also in space and time, that they meet Adam and Abraham at the same time! Abraham was 20th generation from Adam, history says! Adam is said to live about 6 to 7 thousand years ago (about 4000 BC) (ref: wiki.answers.com) and Abraham and Issac between 2000-1500 B.C. Historians can better confirm that.

In the city of Sodom, they come across meet a very hair priest who loves hot oil massage (Oliver Platt) and princess Inanna’s place is wonderland of celebration of flesh and sex, where Zed and Oh’s gals serve as slaves. The primitive couple, now very smart and much matured, wants to get their gals free.

In course of events, Zed is made to enter the temple of the gods by the princess and Oh by the royal princess to communicate with the gods, where they once again get into trouble and are held captives the the king’s men. But the forbidden fruit must still be in Zed’s systems, he delivers a bold speech about how they have come back alive from the holy tomb which no one before has, ad everything happens for reason, and them being chosen by the gods. A primitive man gets unbelievably smart and thinks like a modern man in such a short time! The comparatively civilized city people act more ancient in thoughts than these couple of ’stone-age’ guys. Also the primitive people, the villagers and the people of Sodom in all speak the same language!!

Anyway, after a lot of battles and fighting Zed and Oh save themselves, their gals and the princess, who was becoming a subject of conspiracy of his step-father, the king (Xander Berkeley). And amazingly, the queen (Gia Carides), her very own mother, never raises a voice when her own daughter is being thrown in the fire as a tribute to the gods. Oh has sex with his gal so that she is no longer a virgin, and cannot be thrown into the fire anymore. All is well that ends well! After the battle between the good and the evil is over and all the demonic humans destroyed, it starts raining!!! Peace reigns in the city of Sodom once again! And now it is time for Zed and Oh to part. Zed goes to the explore the world, and Oh back to his people. But they have won the hearts of the women they love.

‘Year One’ is a comedy, but not a good one. The script has a few good parts definitely, but most of it is marked with mediocrity. The film has a good cast, backdrops, but has failed to tell a good story. This same story could have been appealed to a wider audience with a much stronger script and a better comedy.  And who does the film target with its anachronies and witless humor?

Review by: Shrabanti Basu, CT Reporter, USA
Movie Watched at: Carmike Cinema, Bluefield, WV

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Year One [Theatrical Release] on DVD

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Jack Black has worn out his welcome with this little stinker.   Review Date: June 29, 2009 Reviewer: RMurray847, Albuquerque, NM United States If you watch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE with any regularity...you know that it's mostly an exercise in frustration. Usually there are a few really funny moments surrounded by 90% completely half-baked material that evokes more a feeling of embarrassment for the actors than laughter. And at the end of the 90 minute show, the feeling you're left with is "well, THAT wasn't worth the trouble." YEAR ONE is much like that. There are a few pretty funny bits, surrounded by a lot of painfully unfunny stuff. Even worse, I believe it is the movie that has finally convinced me that Jack Black has worn out his welcome. (And Michael Cera isn't far behind...big sigh!) Black reached his "height" for me with SCHOOL OF ROCK (although I liked him in ORANGE COUNTY a lot too). The movie was perfect for his skills...a manic, over-the-top rock `n' roller with a soft heart. He was immensely likeable and his energy and love of rock shone through. Since that time, his comedies have had ever decreasing returns. NACHO LIBRE only worked to the extent that you had good feelings for Black. He worked so hard, you could practically see the flop-sweat...as though the sheer force of his personality would make the film funny. BE KIND REWIND, though in some ways delightfully quirky, didn't work in the end due in large part to Black's brash tone not suiting the more laid-back nature of the film. Even in the wonderful TROPIC THUNDER, Black's performance was the least satisfactory. And all this marginal work has slowly chipped away my goodwill, until with YEAR ONE, Black exhausted it. Black plays a "cave man" who is a lousy hunter and yet feels the burning certainty that something greater awaits him. When he is caught eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil...he is banished from the tribe. Michael Cera is a gatherer (all other gatherers are women) who pines for Black's attractive younger sister...but is essentially meek and nerdy...not at all suitable for a tribe of cave men. He joins Black on his journey, and as they travel through land, they also seem to travel forward in time. They find themselves in "biblical" times, where they meet Cain & Abel (David Cross & Paul Rudd) and then eventually land in the city of Sodom...where Black finally finds a chance to aim for the greatness that has eluded him, when several members of his old tribe suddenly turn up as slaves (think 10,000 B.C., if by chance you endured THAT lousy movie.) So the movie is a satire of cave man movies, but more particularly of Biblical epics and the bible itself. It is not particularly mean-spirited...so the humor isn't very pointed, and the film, at least, doesn't seem "anti-religious" in particular. For me, the best bits included Hank Azaria as a slightly crazed Abraham, a prophet eager to carry out God's desire for his people to be circumcised. His delivery is a combination of someone like Omar Sharif and a televangelist. Other cute bits include Cera's efforts to become a living statue, Oliver Platt's outrageously ridiculous turn as the high priest of Sodom and...well, that's about it. The cast, on paper, was promising. Michael Cera, who built up what I thought was a lifetime of good will with his hilarious work on "Arrested Development" and in JUNO here demonstrates that too much of a good thing really is too much. His stock character was perfect for SUPERBAD, but lost some of its luster with NICK & NORAH and in YEAR ONE...most of his goodwill is gone. While he was certainly funnier than Black...it was also painfully obvious that he was pretty much coasting by simply borrowing from his familiar mannerisms and delivery. It's essential that he find something to do in the future that shakes this up, even a little bit. David Cross (also beloved from "Arrested...") plays the fratricidal Abel and he manages to do absolutely nothing funny. He's trying very hard, but all his bits play like the sketches that come at the VERY end of SNL, when they're just trying to fill 5 minutes before they can wave goodbye. And Paul Rudd is Cain. We know Cain won't last as long as Abel...and his scene is very short indeed. And it's a good thing, because Cain is also not remotely funny and when the end comes for Rudd, I could only imagine how relieved he must have been to be able to get out of costume and head home. This has all been directed by Harold Ramis...but I use the term loosely. Very little skill is shown. The pace and tone of the film are all over the place. He does very little with his camera work to hide the tiny budget he was working with. And the jokes are clumsy. It feels like some of Mel Brooks' later work...the comic style that once felt fresh has become old and tired. Ramis was once a great director (and can still be a funny performer...loved him in KNOCKED UP), but YEAR ONE is not a proud moment. Judd Apatow has his name marginally attached to this film...I wish he'd had the power or foresight to just pull the plug. In 1975, YEAR ONE might have gotten by as an inferior but tonally related companion to YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Now it just plays like a very long, very tired, stylistically anachronistic TV sketch. I went hunting for laughs but I gathered very few.   Review Date: June 24, 2009 Reviewer: Hammock Rider, Talk of the Town Trailer Estates Park - Southern California I can review this movie in one sentence. Whoops, now I guess that would be two.Okay, make that three. Now make that four. Now make it five. Six. Seven. Eight....... Did you like that humor? It was kinda funny the first time but after the 10th time it had only become geometrically less funny? Well if you do, then buy a ticket to Year One, because that's the formula here. You get the same type of humor over and over and over again. The actors all do the style of humor they have done several times before, but this time they really seem to just stumble through the motions. So it's like watching a movie with Zombie Jack Black and Zombie Michael Cera and Zombie David Gross shambling through their routines. Maybe the gags were funnier on paper or maybe the actors were all really tired when they were improving, but most of the humor falls flat. Little kids might like the gross out humor, but they will have a hard time sitting still through all the long, boring parts. The plot, Black and Cera are loser hunter-gatherers who get kicked out of their tribe and decide to rescue their would-be girlfriends from slavers, isn't bad for a zany comedy. I think Hope and Crosby could have pulled a "Road" movie out of it. And I would like to see Jack Black and Michael Cera star in another movie together again, because they do seem to have some comedy chemistry, believe it or not. I'd just like their next movie to be actually, consistently funny. Definitely a renter at best, the missing link here is between the comedy bits and the audinece's laughter. Year One Movie Review from The Massie Twins   Review Date: June 19, 2009 Reviewer: thejoelmeister, www.GoneWithTheTwins.com It's supposed to be funny when Jack Black takes a taste from a pile of animal droppings. It's supposed to be humorous when Black and Michael Cera argue over religion, women, and the varying perspectives of circumcision. And it's supposed to be hilarious when the mismatched duo engages in a slow-speed ox-cart chase, holy sanctity violation, and massive biblical interference. Well, it is. But when you realize what you're laughing at, you'll likely fear for the decline in your level of maturity and the subsequent and proportionately diminishing brain cell count inherent with viewing this degree of absurdity. Both Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) are completely inept at their respective roles as hunters and gatherers in their small prehistoric woodland village. Cast out from their tribe after Zed eats fruit from a forbidden tree, the two wander the land in search of the ends of the earth - but instead they begin disrupting the lives of several biblical figures and wind up on an adventurous rescue mission that will take them into the decadent city of Sodom (an ancient Las Vegas). It's not that we'd necessarily expect more from veteran comedy writer/director Harold Ramis, but Year One almost entirely resorts to immature, gross-out humor. Nearly every gag attempts to top the previous one with jokes that push the limits of sexual deviance and good taste - and the PG-13 rating that it landed after being edited down from an R. Jack Black and Michael Cera are definitely up to the challenge of dueling for the crown of crudity, but it's almost as if we're witnessing two hours of improvisation. They may be dressed in historical garb and thrust into 10,000 BC sets, but they're still just Jack Black and Michael Cera, and the wit and dialogue reeks of the typical shticks that unavoidably appear in every one of their films. It may go slightly beyond the blueprints for a formulaic parody movie, but it has all the same symptoms. The recruiting of recognizable cameo roles is amusing, but the rest is a pointless plot that introduces and resolves conflict with little attention to believability, historical and political incorrectness, boner and fart jokes, constant remarks about genitals (including a particularly lengthy comment on sheep balls), constant sexually suggestive actions (without actually showing nudity) and the literal eating of crap. There's a place for harmless but empty, filthy drivel like Year One - a comedy that can be enjoyed for it's refusal to rise above repetitive, lewd material - but it must be taken in moderation... along with circumcisions, wine and sponge cake. - The Massie Twins Jack's Got Your Back   Review Date: June 20, 2009 Reviewer: Elliott, L.A. If you're willing to mock long-cherished traditions and beliefs, you might like this movie. Partaking from that forbidden tree is hilarious. Cain killing Abel is funny. Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son is a hoot. Circumcision as a religious rite is thoroughly derided. God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the foundation for a long Three-Stooges-like saga that probably cost several million to produce. Jack Black stars as Zed, a "hunter-gatherer" who runs amok through the Old Testament. And whenever Zed's anywhere near an attractive woman, he projects enough lascivious leers to satisfy the most hedonistic members of the audience. Basically, the movie says that all the evil deeds for which God destroyed the "twin cities," as the script describes them, are okay. Not only are they okay, but they are the stuff from which giggles and guffaws are made. Also, those heavy-duty taboos, incest and the ingestion of feces, are touched upon; in the case of feces, quite literally. Throw in some humor about the humiliations suffered by slaves along the way. If your brand of humor includes repeated skull-crushing blows to the head with a heavy stone and a prisoner urinating on himself as he hangs upside-down on a dungeon wall, you might like this film. I'll give it two stars because I did get some good laughs out of it. But, all in all, the humor is rather juvenile and a lot of it falls flat. *******Spoiler Alert******* Sodom doesn't get destroyed this time. slave world   Review Date: June 23, 2009 Reviewer: Bruce P. Barten, Saint Paul, MN United States My reading in economy and society in an attempt to project a sociology of knowledge that will be appropriate for the future of life on earth made me focus on the theme of slavery in this movie. I am not good at watching movies, but it reminded me that slavery was a significant part of the economy of the classical world and even in the Americas for a few hundred years after Columbus. For some people, Viet Nam was understood as being like a movie or something on the TV in their living room, but my 40 years of recapitulation of my year in Viet Nam mainly reminds me how totally clueless people can get in the kind of situations that have not been thoroughly planned and trained to manipulate with their brains better than this movie did.

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