Year One (2009) Review

My Rating: 3/10

Directed by: Harold Ramis
Written by: Harold Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky,Lee Eisenberg
Genre: Comedy, Action & Adventure
Runtime: 97 Minutes

The film doesn’t give any justice to the historical time period of the Stone Age and is a poorly executed comedy. Nothing exciting really happens with the film and for a comedy it really isn’t all that funny. With several cheap shots the film is very weak in direction, character and plot. Starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as our two main characters don’t even give this film a good name. Despite their ‘okay’ performances it doesn’t save this film from being uninteresting and lacking in story. Year One is full of flat characterisation which really makes this film boring and the overall goal of our characters is sloppy. Michael Cera, the star of Scott Pilgrim V.S the World and Juno gives a pretty weak performance in this and even rock star Jack black is the same. Some of the humour is funny, but very little and the direction is very straight forward.  All in all Year One is a film that you can bare to skip.

Plot:

Somehow modern language Cavemen Zed and ‘Oh’, two misfit hunter gatherers go on a wild journey after being banished from their homeland. Along the way they encounter Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd). Cain kills Abel and informs Zed and Oh that they must escape with him or else be accused of killing Abel. So the film is a biblical comedy failure. From there onwards the film is easy to follow, but nothing exciting happens and the whole story just feels pointless.

Michael Cera (Left)

Overall a dumb movie:

There was a cameo of Kyle Gass, partner musician of Tenacious D with Jack Black which was interesting but the overall talent of the film was very dull. Jack Black gave a pretty weak performance and it seems now his roles are just silly. The film has very few moments that make you laugh and it’s one of the dullest comedies I’ve ever seen. While the direction makes since and the story is straightforward, this is what bring it down. The film isn’t exciting, it doesn’t go anywhere, and the characters aren’t very interesting. Overall Year One is a film well worth giving a miss and is full of dull humour, lacking characters and a boring story.

Ratings:

Story/Screenplay: 3.2/10

Characters:3.6/10

Direction & Cinematography:3.5/10

Visuals & Editing:3.9/10

Music: 3.8/10/

Overall: 3.6/10