Review of Year One (2009) by Emerson M — 02 Sep 2011
From Harold Ramis, who made so many good comedies in the 1980's and 90's, comes this Biblical comedy with an all-star cast. Despite all good intentions, it feels dated and would have been more at place in the 1980's, alot of the comedy and gags don't work, and it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.
It starts in a community of cavemen, including bumbling hunter Zed (Jack Black) and his gatherer friend Oh (Michael Cera), who find themselves exiled from their village after Zed eats from Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
They end up going beyond their village, and encountering people such as Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd), and later Abraham (Hank Azaria) and his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). They later end up at the city of Sodom, where their old tribe have been captured as slaves by the Sodomites, and are saved by Cain, who helps get Zed in as a soldier, while Oh ends up as a slave, and then they get into trouble with Sodom's high priest (Oliver Platt), who seems to like it when Oh rubs oil all over him.
The problem with this film is that the comedy is dated, and feels like it would have been funny 25 years ago. It only raises mild chuckles rather than belly laughs, it's a good concept but the gags let it down, and when Cera puts in a better turn than Black, you know somethings wrong.
This review of Year One (2009) was written by Emerson M on 02 Sep 2011.
Year One has generally received negative reviews.
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