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Year One
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures (Sony)
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 77 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Comedy
Written by:
Harold Ramis
Gene Stupnitsky
Lee Eisenberg
Directed by: Harold Ramis
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 19, 2009
DVD: October 6, 2009
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence
Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, and Hank Azaria
When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world. (Sony Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Analyze That Analyze This Bedazzled Groundhog Day The Ice Harvest
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A thoroughly, sometimes gaggingly broad and sly conceptual laugh-in.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Year One has one joke, but it's a good one, played for many variations over the course of an often very funny comedy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It's the knockabout biblical lark Mel Brooks never got around to making.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
At best it's a bit like Mel Brooks' "The History of the World Part I" (except Ramis stops somewhere in Genesis); at worst it's like a Scary Movie-type parody of John Huston's "The Bible."
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
I have a certain affection for this movie, if only because of its conceptual simplicity.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Year One is not really THAT bad and not ENTIRELY without laughs.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The humor, largely centered around bodily functions and bathroom habits, is almost exclusively sophomoric.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Josh Modell
Year One isn't dreadful; it just isn't nearly as funny as it hopes to be.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
A lot of comedic talent founders in this new Harold Ramis comedy that doesn't exactly recall his glory days of "Caddyshack" and "Groundhog Day."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
There is no real plot either; instead the narrative seems designed to get this prehistoric pair from one funny sketch to the next, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
Read Full Review >Empire Dan Jolin
Unless you pine for second-tier Mel Brooks, you'll find more laughs in the Old Testament itself.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
I found the most extreme material to be so tasteless that it voided all comedy.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
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?
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Year One sets prehistoric comedy back at least 20 years.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Perhaps the best that can be said for Year One is that it aims low and hits the mark.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Any good will the movie generates, though, is grated right back off by Black, whose obnoxiousness has lost whatever charm it once possessed.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The only people who should be peeved enough to raise hell about Year One are the viewers who had to pay to sit through it.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
During all of the film’s oh-so-long 97 minutes, Year One, barely earns a snicker.
Read Full Review >Premiere Robert Calvert
We loved this movie the first three times we saw it, when it was called "Life of Brian," "Wholly Moses," and "History of the World Part 1."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
This is shtick that’s minimally a generation past its expiration date.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Robert Wilonsky
Unbearably painful from shrugging start to outtakes-laden finish, Harold Ramis’ half-assed, hare-brained return to writing and directing makes Mel Brooks’ equally muddled, soporific "History of the World, Part 1" look downright majestic by comparison.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 77 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Perverz Bi gave it a6:
It's a typical Apatow movie set in the times of the Old Testament. And the Old Testament is perfect for an Apatow movie's sex&fart jokes. Yes, it is a different kind of humour than what Mel Brooks had, but this movie's plot is more comprehensive, I think. If you survive the first 20 minutes, it turns out to be quite funny to reflect today's order of values in the biblical setting.
Jesse B gave it a3:
Very disappointing. I like Black and Cera, but it just wasn't funny.
Ryan S. gave it a3:
Jack Black was kind of funny, but the rest of this was garbage. Way too much unfunny biblical stuff, too.
Jay H. gave it a4:
Harold Ramis is no Mel Brooks. The concept seemed funny, but there are way too many misses in the humor, as well as far too many male genitalia gags. Occasionally there are some laughs, the art direction and costumes are imaginative but otherwise it doesn't work.
Timothy T. gave it a4:
There's more humor in most thrillers than Year One.
Jake K. gave it a0:
I cant believe this is still in theaters i could do a play in my back yard thats better than this!
Kevin C. gave it a0:
The best that could be said about this movie is that Jack Black and Michael Cera do a good job pretending that the script is funny. I firmly belive that all the actors in the movie plotted this terrible waste of eyesight so that on their next bomb everyone can say "At least it was not as bad as Year One".
