Year One

It isn't everyday that you see a film with this much talent involved (Jack Black, Michael Cera, Harold Raimis, David Cross and Paul Rudd amongst others) that is this terrible. It just is not a good movie in every sense. At best there are a few mild laughs. Which just isn't good enough.

Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) are a pair of entirely anachronistic hunter gathers living amongst a neolithic tribe. Zed is a failure as a hunter, and an object of ridicule for the tribe. Oh wants nothing more than to lie with Eema (Juno Temple) but she doesn't even know he exists. It's a fairly humdrum, pointless existence until Zed samples the forbidden fruit and gets both of them banished from the tribe. They journey over the hills, and into the world of the old testament. It's a biblical roadtrip to Sodom.

Instead of one single cohesive storyline full of characterdevelopment, and real emotion, Year Oneis hung on a long series of sketches and jokes, most of which fall very flat. Black and Cera stay pretty much the same throughout the entire film. They are who they were at the beginning. If they learned, or grew as characters I'd be hard pressed to see it.

It isn't only the characters that show a complete lack of growth, it's the actors too. Black and Cera are playing the same basic characters that they always play. Which are just versions of themselves. It's a very hit or miss proposition, especially with Black. In some films his wild man manic energy is hilarious, but here it just gets tedious. I'm still willing to go along with Cera's shtick, but I'd appreciate seeing a little bit of growth.

Along with a complete lack of character, the film is decidedly lacking in the visual department. Ramis is certainly more than capable of directing an interesting film (see: Groundhog Day, or The Ice Harvestfor examples), but this is just "over, over, two shot" terrible tv show esque hackery. It's just boring, and kind of lazy.

There were a few moments where I kind of chuckled, but they were few and far between. Some great opportunities were wasted, like a scene with Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd) that was almost painfully unfunny, but could have been hilarious. Even Hank Azaria's crazed lunatic Abraham, that is intially chuckle worthy just gets dragged out far past the point of being funny.

I definitely wouldn't recommend paying money to see Year One. Maybe if it's on tv, or someone else pays to rent it, it might be worth watching. But only maybe.

Grade: D+