The Year One

Year One is pretty bad, despite it being an Apatow movie, and despite having two fairly talented comedic actors as the leads. The first 20 minutes or so are horrific. Unfunny, forced, lazy writing - you name it. I almost turned it off. But then Jack Black gets it going a little bit, and by the time the plot moves to Sodom, there are actually a few funny parts. As bad as it starts, it does get a little better. If you are willing to trade two hours for a few late laughs, have at it.

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... Read more

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... Read more

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.

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 literal... Read more

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 ad... Read more